Not That Old
by turtlelly
Summary: After the death of his bonded, Ratchet closed himself off and learned to keep his emotions buried. Can a new apprentice make him open up? Sequel series to Bee My Love and Fight, Flight, or Fancy(again, don't need to have read either to understand/enjoy)
1. Chapter 1

Ratchet had never been a patient mech. Dedicated, yes. Hardworking, yes. Temperamental, definitely. But he most certainly not a patient mech, and when his new apprentice(who he hadn't asked to have) was ten minutes late to their first meeting, any sense of patience he might have held flew right out the door.

When Optimus had told him he was assigning him another apprentice, Ratchet hadn't exactly been the happiest of bots. He'd already had several apprentices over his lifetime, and had been looking forward to getting to run his Medbay uninterrupted, without some bumbling kid who had no idea what they were doing messing it up.

But Optimus, kind soul that he was, tried to pay attention to every young bot's aspirations and tried to give them as many opportunities as he could. And seeing as Ratchet was the most qualified medic they had left, he got stuck with any snot-nosed brat who said they wanted to be a medic.

Ratchet was actually beginning to wish his new apprentice would arrive from Cybertron already, so he could teach him the basics and get him out of the way. Ultra Magnus had taken a team out to investigate some Decepticon activity on the edge of Jasper, Nevada, and Ratchet was almost certain that with that idiot heading the team, there was bound to be some injured bots.

Finally, he heard the sound of unfamiliar pedsteps behind him and a tentative knock on the Medbay door.

"You're late." He said irritably, not even bothering to turn around, "But moving on." He began gathering datapads and charts together for the apprentice, "Basically your job here is to watch my every move, to learn from what I do, and to help with the overload of medical reports that have heaped-you're a femme?"

He had been walking toward the apprentice, still looking at the datapads, when he had glanced up finally and come to a complete stop. The apprentice was slim, green and white, and most definitely female, with a questioning and slightly offended look on her faceplates.

"...Is that a problem sir?"

"No." He ran a servo over his helm, "No, of course not. Forgive me, I just-all of my past apprentices have been mechs. I've grown used to it…" He stuck out his servo, "Ratchet."

She shook it, "Moonracer."

He looked at her thoughtfully a moment more and then fell into his usual bluster, "Right then. You've already heard the basic job description. Do you have any prior medical experience?"

"I mean I've been patching bots up for..." She trailed off, seeing the look he was giving her.

"Right." He said crisply, "All the way back to the beginning for training then."

He shoved the datapads and charts in her servos and began walking away back to his computer, leaving her gaping at his back, "Let's just assume that everything you know how to do, medically, is wrong."

"What?" Moonracer said incredulously, "Why? I've been doing this for years, I've-"

"Because you were not taught by me." He said impatiently, "My way is the only right way, and I have a reason for why everything I do is exactly correct. So, if you want to be exactly correct in everything you do, medically, you will have to listen to me, and do exactly as I tell you."

"So I should just completely forget everything I ever learned?" Moonracer huffed annoyedly, struggling with the datapads, "All of my experience, everything?"

"Look kid." Ratchet said, and she bristled a little at being called kid, "This is the situation. You're stuck with me, and I'm stuck with you. So either you listen to me, and we get along and everything goes swimmingly, or," He picked up his wrench from the counter and hefted it, giving her a meaningful look, "Not so swimmingly. Which will it be?"

"...Swimmingly." She grumbled

"That's what I thought."

"For the record." She raised an optic ridge, "You may feel that you're stuck with me, but I don't feel like I'm stuck with you. I came to train under the best medic on Cybertron…"

"But no one told you what I'm really like?" He finished her thought, grinning a little, "Don't worry. You'll feel like you're stuck with me soon enough."


	2. Chapter 2

When Optimus had called Moonracer into his office a few days ago in the Iacon base, she was slightly nervous. She was afraid it might have been because she had accidentally shot Sunstreaker in the aft when they were out on a mission yesterday. She knew Optimus couldn't be that mad, but seeing as this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, she was worried his temper might have been raised a little.

Moonracer, although she wasn't exactly a shy femme, generally kept to herself. Her only friend was a ninja bot named Windblade, and the two were an inseparable pair. The only bot Moonracer felt she could talk to and confide in with the same ease was Optimus.

She knocked hesitantly on the Prime's door and entered with a resigned sigh.

Optimus was at his desk, working on datapads as usual, and he glanced up when she came in, "Good afternoon, Moonracer."

"Hey Prime." She fidgeted guiltily and then blurted out, "If this is about Sunstreaker, I'm really sorry. He startled me, and I thought he was a Decepticon, and I-"

"Wait, wait." He waved a servo, "What happened with Sunstreaker?"

"You didn't know?" Moonracer face-palmed. She had basically just tattled on herself, "Oh, nothing really happened…"

"Moonracer." Optimus raised an optic ridge and she winced.

"I might have, ah, shot him. In the aft. Sir."

"You shot-" Optimus scrubbed his faceplates with his servos, "Oh Primus."

"It was an accident." She said helplessly.

"You know what," The Prime sighed and stood up, "This proves the reason I called you in here well. Although you have a kind spark and care much about your fellow soldiers, you yourself are not the best soldier I have."

He was smiling a little, but Moonracer was still unsure if this was going down a good road or a bad road.

"However," He continued, "One thing you are very talented at, and seem to enjoy, is caring for others, medically. For example, after you shot Sunstreaker, I'm sure you kept him from bleeding out from his….wounds."

"Well, yeah." Moonracer said uncertainly, "Where are you heading with this?"

"You know of Ratchet, the medic stationed on Earth?" Optimus said, "He is one of my oldest friends."

"Ratchet?" Moonracer's optics grew huge, "The best medic on Cybertron? Is he your oldest friend like you've known him longest, or is he just really old?"

Optimus considered and then chuckled, "Both. Although he would not be happy about the second part. But I was going to say that I've arranged for you to have an apprenticeship with him, if you would like to."

"If I would like to?" She whispered excitedly, "Are you crazy? Of course I would like to! I would love to!" She bit her lip guiltily, "But don't you need me here? You don't have many soldiers."

"Yes, but what I have even fewer of are medics." He sighed and smiled at her, "Although you will be sorely missed, Moonracer, you will make a much better medic than a soldier, and I'm sure a lot of the bots in the base would agree with me."

"Sunstreaker included." She said sheepishly and he laughed a little.

"And in case you were unhappy about leaving Windblade behind," He added, "I have also secured her an apprenticeship on Earth with Drift. She is packing right now. Why don't you go join her?"

"Gah!" Moonracer exclaimed happily, barely able to get the words out, and hugged the surprised Prime, "Thanks Prime. I am so ready for this!"

She practically skipped out the door, leaving the Prime standing there, smiling a little. Although he would never admit it, the young bots were always his favorite soldiers. They were always so happy and full of life. The war wasn't weighing heavily on them quite yet.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Moonracer burst excitedly into her best friend's quarters as Windblade was packing one of her swords. Startled, the ninja bot whipped the blade around and pointed it at Moonracer's nose.

" 'Blade!" Moonracer said happily and Windblade lowered her sword.

"Hey Moon." She smiled, "Excited for Earth?"

"Yes!" The green and white femme pumped her fists.

"I can't believe it." Windblade sat on her berth and Moonracer sat next to her, "Drift is one of the most amazing ninja masters that have ever existed."

"And Ratchet is the best medic on Cybertron!" Moonracer said excitedly, "I can't wait! Only…"

"Only what?" Her companion asked.

Moonracer's shoulders slumped, "What if I mess this up too? I mean this is the opportunity of a lifetime, but I don't have the best luck with...well, anything."

"You won't know until you try." Windblade tried to cheer her up, "And at least you know you can't shoot Ratchet in the aft. You won't even be in the field!"

Moonracer laughed, brightening a little, "I'm sure I would find a way."

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Moonracer had been very excited to meet Ratchet and get started on her apprenticeship for the entire night and next morning. Finally, it was time for the two to leave and they said goodbye to everyone and stepped through the spacebridge. Moonracer hugged Optimus again.

In the base on Earth, the two femmes were escorted to their new quarters by none other than Arcee herself, who Windblade was very excited to finally meet. She had arrived on Cybertron after the team for Earth had already departed, and so she had never gotten to meet the legendary femme warrior.

On the way they passed three small, curious looking organisms, who were apparently the inhabitants of this planet, called humans.

"Jack!" The tiny female with black and pink fur on her head complained, "Can't you help me practice guitar for just a second?"

"Leave him alone, Miko." said a small teenaged boy with strange glass frames on his face, hardly even glancing up from his book, "He's studying for his first college midterm."

The conversation of the small beings was completely lost on the two femmes, and they continued on to their quarters, dropping their things off before heading to their first day.

As Moonracer approached the Medbay, she felt a little nervous, but she didn't allow herself to dwell on it long, knocking quietly on the open door.

The mech standing with his back to her was a stark contrast to what she had imagined. She had thought Ratchet would be an old, rusty, bent over mech, shuffling around in a dark and crowded room. She was very, very wrong.

The mech before her stood in a pristine white Medbay with his back straight, helm bent slightly over his datapads. His finish was still a colorful red and white, and he was in remarkably good condition for a mech of his age. He seemed to hold himself with an air of confidence and strength, and when his optics finally snapped up to meet hers, she realized they were a sharp intelligent dark blue. Moonracer was actually thinking maybe this job wouldn't go so bad.

That is, until he opened his mouth.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The poor exhausted femme did not leave the Medbay until the early hours of the morning. Ratchet had had her working non stop on reports, of which there were huge stacks to be finished, and of course he was looking over her shoulder the entire time, correcting her mistakes. The mech seemed to have no concept of the passage of time, and he demanded absolute perfection and preciseness, which Moonracer wasn't sure she could provide.

He had at least had the decency to tell her not to come in until later the next morning, realizing how late it was. However, Moonracer was still left with the feeling of hopelessness, frustration, and an impending sense of doom.

As soon as she got back to her quarters, she collapsed on her berth. Windblade was still up next door, practicing her training, and she heard Moonracer come in.

"Are you just getting back?" The red femme asked when her friend opened the door.

'Yes." She groaned. She let Windblade in and promptly laid back down on the berth.

"How was it?" Windblade sat worriedly next to her.

"Not the best." Moonracer sighed, "He's a perfectionist, so I seem to do everything wrong. More than usual. And he's starting me off on reports, which is great, but I really want to learn medical stuff, not be a secretary. Hopefully he lets me; he seems like he's just trying to make me stay out of the way."

"Really?" Windblade frowned, 'What an afthole."

Moonracer waved her servo, "I don't really blame him; he didn't even want an apprentice. Optimus forced me on him. I wouldn't want to deal with me either."

"He's not 'dealing' with you, Moon." Windblade argued, "He's lucky to have you. You're already so good at what you do that someday you're going to be the best apprentice he's ever had. Who knows, maybe you'll even be better than him."

"As if that's even possible." Moonracer snorted, "No one could be better than the best." Then she sighed, "I don't know, 'Blade. I just have a feeling that at some point something will go horribly wrong."

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ratchet finally finished all of the reports at around 4 am(in Earth time), and called Optimus, who he knew would be awake. He fumed to himself as he waited for the Prime to pick up, sourly thinking that he would have finished sooner if he hadn't had to teach that apprentice how to do reports.

"Hello?" Optimus answered and saw Ratchet, "Ah. Hello, old friend."

"Optimus." The medic said shortly, folding his arms.

"How was the first day with Moonracer?" Optimus asked, noticing his friend's grumpy stance.

"Horrible." Ratchet said, tapping his ped, "She is almost completely unknowledgeable about anything medical, she is rude, and she is young and naive. You must take her back."

"Ratchet." The Prime suppressed a smile, "Every one of those statements was a lie and you know it."

"Not every one." The medic grumbled, "She is young and naive."

"Young, yes." Optimus smiled, "But she makes up for it by having a good helm on her shoulders. She isn't a bad medic either, for being self-taught; she's even saved a few lives. Have you tested her medical know-how yet?"

"Not yet."

The Prime gave him a confused look, "Then what did you have her doing all day?"

Ratchet sighed, "Reports. As I have told you repeatedly, Optimus, I do not want another apprentice."

"Give her a chance, Ratchet." Optimus said, "I feel that she will be of great help to you, if you let her. And remember how you never liked any of your apprentices at first?"

The white and red bot sighed wearily, "Fine. I will give her a chance to prove herself."

"Good."

"But." The medic narrowed his optics, "You must promise me, Optimus, no more apprentices after this. She is the last one."

"Why do you not want any more, Ratchet?"

"Optimus, as you keep incessantly pointing out to me, I am very old and tired. I just want to be left alone to…." The medic hesitated and closed his optics, deciding not to scare his friend, "To run my Medbay in peace. Not have to teach bots things constantly. Not have to always be around all these energetic young bots. Just...quiet."

"You were going to say something else." The Prime said quietly

"So what if I was?"

Optimus observed his friend silently for a moment, "Very well. You shall have no more apprentices after Moonracer; she is the last one. I promise."


	3. Chapter 3

Moonracer reported to the Medbay early the next morning, despite Ratchet's instructions to come in later.

"Good morning!" She said cheerily to the medic, who was elbows deep in the inner circuitry of what looked like a generator of some sort.

He glanced up, "I thought I told you to sleep in?"

"You did." She nodded, "But I was too excited to recharge, so I thought I'd come back a little early."

"Insubordination." Ratchet grumbled, returning to tinkering, "Tell me something, Moonblazer."

"Moonracer."

"Moonracer." He amended, "What makes you want to be a medic?"

"Combination of things, I guess." She shrugged, "I like helping people and making sure they're well. It's one of the only things I'm good at." She blushed, "I'm not the best with, ah, weapons. Or tactics. Or being stealthy. Or-"

"Pretty much anything related to being a soldier?" Ratchet interrupted, grinning slightly.

"Right." Moonracer said embarrassedly, "They were pretty relieved to see me go, actually. Or at least, Sunstreaker was."

"That yellow pain in the aft." Ratchet growled, "What'd he have to do with it?"

"I kinda, um, shot him." Moonracer cringed, "In the aft."

The medic stared at her for a minute before bursting out laughing, much to her surprise. She hadn't been entirely sure if he could laugh.

"You shot-oh my Primus." He gasped, holding his sides, "That has got to be the best thing I've heard in centuries!"

"I thought he was a Decepticon…" Moonracer muttered sheepishly, "It was an accident…"

"And here I was hoping it was intentional!" The medic sighed, still laughing a little, "You mistook the bright yellow Autobot for a Decepticon? Are you color blind perhaps?"

"No…." Moonracer shook her helm, "Just, ah, clumsy I guess. Bit jumpy too, with a gun in my servo."

"Well." The medic shook his helm, still grinning a little, "You shouldn't be sorry for it, anyways. That stupid twin deserved to be shot in the aft at least once." He drummed his digits on the generator, "Now, if only I could get you to do the same to the twins here! Now that would be something!"

"I'm guessing you don't like twins very much." Moonracer laughed a little.

"Stupid fraggers." Ratchet rolled his optics, "Always ending up in here for one reason or another, playing pranks on everyone, even me!" He scowled, returning to his work.

"Whatcha working on?" Moonracer asked.

"It's the back up generator for the base." Ratchet tightened a few of the bolts, "The human's back up generator, made with their infernal technology of course, has about enough energy to power a toaster, so I'm building a better, more energy efficient one."

"And here I was thinking you were just a medic." Moonracer examined the generator, "Although the word 'just' should never be put before 'medic'."

He smiled, a little pleased that she has said that, "Nope, not just a medic. I'm also a scientist, and engineer, and the second in command of this Earth team. Not much of an inventor though." Ratchet sighed, "That was always Wheeljack's specialty."

Moonracer had heard about Wheeljack and his death from Windblade, so she decided not to press the matter. Instead she asked, "So, what am I doing today? More reports?"

The medic sighed, "There will always be reports to work on. I've decided that today we'll go over the basics of medical training instead."

"Really?" She said, biting her lip to hold in her excitement, "That sounds great!"

"Don't get too excited, apprentice. You've still got a long way to go before you can even think about repairing bots on your own." He dusted imaginary dust off his servos and switched the generator on. It began to hum and glow an electric blue and Ratchet grinned triumphantly, "Well, now that that's taken care of...let's get some of this training over with."

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Moonracer had another late night(something she was beginning to suspect would happen often), but of course she didn't mind.

Ratchet had truly gone all the way back to the beginning with his medical training; he was making certain that she knew the exact anatomy of a Cybertronian. And while she rolled her optics and sat in impatient silence while he explained to her basic body parts like legs and peds, she was fascinated by the interior diagrams.

Most information on complex things, like the interiors of Cybertronians, was lost when Cybertron was destroyed centuries ago. The only remaining knowledge of such things was in a few scattered datapads (a couple of which Ratchet owned and Moonracer was fascinated by) and in the processors of bots like Ratchet.

On her way out that night, she paused and looked back at the medic, who was still working at his computer, "Ratchet?"

"Hmmm?"

"When do you...Do you ever recharge?"

He glanced up sharply, "That's none of your concern, apprentice."

She raised her servos defensively, "Calm down, Doc. Just a question."

"Don't call me Doc!" Ratchet said angrily and took a breath, "Why don't you...go home, okay?"

Moonracer gave him a look that was a mix of concerned, confused and slightly angered, and stepped out of the door, letting it bang shut behind her.

"Fragging hot-head." Ratchet grumbled at himself, rubbing his helm. Originally it had only bothered him a little when bots called him Doc. But Wheeljack had said it the most, and when he offlined...now every time it was just a painful reminder of the bot he had let die.

He briefly wondered if he should apologize, but dismissed the thought without a pause. She was being nosy, and now she knew not to call him that.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

For her third day at her apprenticeship, Moonracer went out of her way to be late. Clearly Ratchet didn't really want her there, and she was getting a little sick of his grumpy demeanor. So, she took the morning as an excuse to get to know the bots on base.

Ultra Magnus was of course the commander of the small Earth team, and was very different from Optimus. While both mechs were quite formal, Optimus at least seemed to care about his soldiers.

In Moonracer's opinion, Ultra Magnus seemed to have a five foot pole constantly lodged up his rear. He barked orders left and right and was unafraid to assign punishments to troublemakers like Jolt, and the twins, Mudflap and Skids.

She also got the chance to officially meet the three human children that hung around the base a lot. They were introduced to her as Jack, Miko, and Raf. She wasn't particularly worried about either of the males, but the female, Miko, seemed to be a bit of troublemaker, something she would have to keep an optic out for.

Then there was Mirage, who came with Jolt, Drift, Arcee, Bulkhead, and a strange winged Autobot named Powerglide.

The only reason Moonracer had finally reported to the Medbay was in fact to get away from Powerglide and his prattling. The mech couldn't seem to stop talking about himself and while Moonracer could admit that it was cool that he could fly, she was starting to wonder if Optimus had sent him to Earth just to get rid of him.

So, reluctantly, she trudged into the Medbay and was graced with a glance from Ratchet, "Where've you been? You're an hour late."

"I was meeting all of the other bots in the base." Moonracer sighed, "Not that I'm complaining, but you've been keeping me in here quite late. Didn't give me much time to meet everyone."

"Well." Ratchet returned to his computer, "This is a demanding position. I expect you to be on time in the future."

Moonracer inclined her helm, "Whatcha working on now, Doc?"

He narrowed his optics at her, "Watch it."

"Sorry." She held up her servos, "Forgot. Why don't you like that name?"

"I have my reasons, none of which are any of your business." He said smoothly, "Now, once I finish these maps of the tremors around the Well for the Cybertron team's next mission, we can continue your training."

"The Well?" She echoed

"Yes, the Well." He rolled his optics, "I suppose you're probably so young you don't even know what that is."

"Yeah?" Moonracer grinned a little, "Well, you're so old that you might as well go live in it."

The medic sat in stunned silence for a moment, and then leaned forward, an icy smile tugging at his lips, "Are you sure you want to play this game, apprentice?"

She shrugged, "If you're going to sit there and insult me about my age, then I don't see why I shouldn't be able to do the same to you."

"Here's a thought." Ratchet said, leaning back in his chair, "We are not equals. I am your superior."

"You may be my superior, Ratch." Moonracer shook her helm, "But that is no reason why you shouldn't treat me with the same respect I have given you. I have followed your every instruction since I got here and have been nothing but polite to you. I was even willing to throw all my previous medical experience out the window because I thought, 'Hey this guy really knows what he's doing'. But you," She laughed a little, "Are not a very easy bot to get along with."

He raised an optic ridge, "I did warn you."

She lifted a shoulder, "I don't mind how grumpy you are, I guess it's in your nature. But could you please cut back on the insulting and the disrespect? All I ask."

He laughed softly to himself, "Knew there was a reason I decided to keep you around. Alright, I will try to be...less disrespectful. Although I reserve the right to insult you about your age." He grinned a little, walking away, "I think it will remind you how inexperienced you are."

"Then I reserve the right to insult you about your age too." Moonracer said boldly, "To remind you that you're a stubborn old coot."

He smirked and said sarcastically, "Ah, the battles we'll have. Can't wait. Oh, I forgot to mention…"

"What?"

"We're having a visitor today." Ratchet grinned at her, "An old apprentice of mine. I'm hoping he'll give you some advice about avoiding wrenches to the helm."


	4. Chapter 4

Moonracer spent most of the rest of the day being both nervous and excited for First Aid arrival, wishing Ratchet had given her more warning. She was eager to get to talk to a former student of Ratchet's, someone who had been in her position before. But Ratchet seemed to admire First Aid a lot, and Moonracer worried that the reason for that was that they were very similar. First Aid could be like a second Ratchet!

When Ratchet finally noticed Moonracer wiping down the medical berths for the seventh time, he came over and grabbed her wrist, "What in Pit are you doing?"

"Cleaning." She gave him a blank look.

"Moonracer." He laughed a little, "If you clean these berths any more, they'll disintegrate." He studied her thoughtfully, "Are you stress-cleaning?"

"No?" She denied but it had come out more like a question so she said again, "No. I was just, um-"

"Stress cleaning." Ratchet stated, giving her a look and she withered a little.

"Okay, fine, yes." She tapped his digits, making him release his grip on her wrist, and walked away, "I'm just-nervous, I guess."

"Don't be." Ratchet chuckled, "You'll like him. Everyone generally does." He received a comm then and grinned, :Hey Mirage:

:Hello Ratchet. First Aid has arrived:

:Oh good: The medic turned and looked at Moonracer, who was fiddling with a stack of datapads on his desk, :Could you bring him down?:

He ended the comm and shooed the attacking apprentice away from his desk, "Quit cleaning things that are already clean, would ya?"

"Sorry." She brushed her thighs and sighed, "He's on his way?"

"Yes, if you would like to 'prepare' yourself. Ratchet rolled his optics, "Honestly I think next time I just won't tell you when someone's coming to visit. Skip over all this drama."

"Ratchet!" Moonracer exclaimed nervously, "You wouldn't! You didn't give me enough time to prepare as it was!"

"Femme, you've had almost the entire damn day." Ratchet scrubbed his faceplates wearily, "Seriously, do you have some sort of anxiety disorder that wasn't listed in your file?"

"I have a file?" She paused, "You read it?"

"Primus." Ratchet sighed, "Forget it, just answer the question."

"Well, no I don't have any anxiety disorders." She glanced down, "I just get nervous about meeting new bots. That was why I went out earlier and met everyone all at once. To get it over with."

"Huh." Ratchet nodded, "Noted, then."

There was a quiet knock at the Medbay door and Ratchet called, "Enter."

The door swung open on its own and Mirage's voice said, "Hello Ratchet. Here is First Aid for you." A red and white bot with a wide set blue visor stepped into the room and spotted Ratchet, "Hey Ratch!"

"Hello First Aid." Ratchet clapped the smaller medic on the back, "Always good to see you." He frowned and called, "Hey Mirage, you still here?"

"Yes, why?"

"Just wondering why you're invisible right now."

"Oh." There was a pause and they could hear the white and blue bot shifting uncomfortably, "I kind of, um, got stuck."

"Ah." Ratchet grinned a little, "Want me to take a look?"

"No offense Ratchet, but I feel there isn't much you can do if you can't even see me." Mirage sighed, "I'll come back later if it's still happening."

They heard his pedsteps echoing away and then the Medbay door banged shut.

"So." First Aid turned to Moonracer, "You must be Moonracer? I've heard so much about you from Ratchet!"

Seeing her expression he added, "All good things, of course."

"Good things?" Moonracer laughed nervously, "From him? You must be joking."

"Hahahaha." First Aid chuckled good naturedly, "You know, I like her Ratch. She's spunky!"

Moonracer left the two bots alone to get caught up for a little bit while she worked on reports. It wasn't until later when Mirage came back in for Ratchet to work on and First Aid came and sat next to her that she got to talk to him.

"So." He pulled a stool over to her computer and sat, "What made you want to be a medic?"

"You know, Ratch asked me that same question." Moonracer smiled, "I just like helping bots, and I'm not much good at anything else. What about you?"

First Aid rubbed his neck, "Well, I kinda, um...can't stand to see anyone in pain I guess."

"Well that's a pretty good characteristic to have in a medic." Moonracer said encouragingly.

"No, I mean-" He laughed, "That's kind of you to say, but...when I said 'anyone' I meant anyone. Even fraggin' 'Cons." He scrubbed his faceplates wearily, "That's what makes me such a scrap-tastic soldier. I can't even fire at them."

"Primus, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one." Moonracer laughed, trying to cheer him up, "I was the worst soldier ever. I even shot one of my own teammates."

"Hahahaha." First Aid chuckled, "What a pair we make. So, how are you adjusting to Ratchet?"

Moonracer winced, "He's definitely not my favorite bot…"

"Oh believe me femme, I remember." He laughed, "He's a lot to deal with, and he has a lot of personal problems that he likes to keep to himself, which makes it harder to care about him. But," First Aid shrugged, "You grow to love the old coot."

"Really?" Moonracer raised an optic ridge, "He assured me the opposite would happen."

"Haha." First Aid laughed, "Don't worry. He has a tough, grumpy exterior, but he's really just a big softie. Once he cares about you, he'll do anything for you."

"First Aid." Ratchet called, examining the still invisible Mirage, "What nonsense are you filling my apprentice's helm with?"

"Nothing, Ratchet." First Aid called back merrily and Ratchet hmphed.

"Nothing my aft. Well, I could use your help over here for a minute anyways, if you don't mind."

"Sure." First Aid clapped Moonracer on the shoulder, 'Hey, hang in there. And if you ever need anything, and I mean anything, feel free to comm me, okay? I'll have Ratchet give you my frequency."

"Thanks First Aid." Moonracer smiled, pleased. Ratchet was right, she had really like First Aid. He seemed to be a genuine, caring bot.

First Aid left later that night, after the two had finally finished restoring Mirage to his normal condition. He had asked Moonracer to help him find his way back to the ground bridge, because he hadn't the slightest clue how to find his way around this base.

So, Moonracer took him up to the ground bridge and said goodbye.

"Seriously, anytime, comm me!" First Aid said cheerily, "And take good care of that old badger, alright? I know he doesn't recharge much, but there's not much you can do about that. He's pretty stubborn. Just let him crash and-"

"Crash?" Moonracer said worriedly, "He crashes?"

"Ah." First Aid glanced at her apologetically, "Yeah, he does. Sorry, guess you haven't encountered that but good that I'm preparing you. He'll stay up for days on end sometimes and then his systems will eventually force him into recharge, so he crashes. When that happens, just let him recharge until he wakes up on his own." First Aid sighed, "He'll be pissed as all hell at you for it, but he needs the recharge."

"O-kay." Moonracer said, a little overwhelmed, "Well, thanks First Aid. I'll see you later!"

The small medic waved and disappeared into the ground bridge, and Moonracer headed back down to the Medbay, now a little worried about Ratchet. It couldn't be good for his systems to crash all the time like that.

"So." The medic said when she walked back in, "What'd you think?"

"About-?" Moonracer said distractedly, "Oh, First Aid? Nice bot. You're right, he wasn't so bad."

Ratchet studied her thoughtfully, "You didn't think anything else?"

"No." She gave him a confused look, "Why, should I have?"

He sighed, "I feel like I'm betraying the poor mech a little, but….he obviously kind of likes you, Moonracer."

"Oh." Moonracer swallowed, "Um, no, yeah I wasn't-That wasn't anything that crossed my processor."

"Ah, well." Ratchet nodded, "I felt I should inform you, so you could, um, deal with that how you see fit.". There was an awkward pause and then Ratchet said, "So now that I've told you...is it, um. Do you think-"

"No, he's, ah, not really my type I guess." Moonracer laughed awkwardly, "I mean don't get me wrong, he's a nice bot and all, I just-don't really feel it."

"Well." Ratchet suppressed a pleased smile, "That should be, ah, interesting to deal with."

"Why are you-you're smiling!" Moonracer laughed, a little bewildered, "What in Pit, Ratchet?"

"What? I was-I was not smiling, Moonracer." Ratchet frowned at himself, "I wasn't. Anyways, try not to lead the poor bot on please. Like you said, he is a good bot."

"Right." Moonracer said, giving him a weird look.

They continued working until the early hours of the morning again, and Ratchet finally told Moonracer she could leave. She straightened up her workspace quickly, and headed out the door, pausing to look back worriedly at the older medic, who was of course still working.

He glanced up and caught her optics, "What?"

"Nothing." She said embarrassedly and stepped out of the door quickly, calling back, "Night Ratchet."

"Good night." He murmured confusedly, returning to his work.


	5. Chapter 5

For the next few days after First Aid's visit, everything was quiet in the base. Ratchet had returned to instructed Moonracer in the ways of the medic, as he normally did, and everyone else was either on edge while they waited for the next Decepticon attack, or enjoying the brief moment of peace.

"Ratchet." Moonracer mumbled wearily, "When do I actually get to do medic stuff?"

He was re-demonstrating how to reattach wires and energon lines for the third time, and shot her an irked glare, "For the ten thousandth time, not until you learn everything there is to know about being a medic. And you complaining about how it's not going fast enough for you, is in fact wasting time."

"Ratch, you're killing me!" Moonracer groaned, sprawling her helm on the table, "I'm dying of boredom!"

"Yes, haha, very funny." Ratchet rolled his optics, walking away to get yet another diagram, "I swear to Primus I'm sick of you young bots. Everything's gotta be done faster, and as a result," He stuck a digit in the air, "Sloppier!"

"Oh yeah? Well-" Moonracer was about to deliver a scathing reply about old bots until she saw Ratchet stop walking and freeze up.

"Ratch?" She questioned worriedly as he turned and looked at her with panicked and slightly annoyed optics.

"Scrap! Not now-" He sighed, before completely collapsing to the floor like dead weight, with an audible bang.

"Primus!" Moonracer cried, hurrying to his side, "Ratchet? Ratchet!". She shook him a little but his optics remained offlined. She began to panic, worrying maybe he had finally just offlined in the middle of the Medbay, but then she remembered what First Aid had said.

She commed him shakily, :First Aid?:

:Moonracer, hey!: First Aid commed back cheerily, :So good to hear from you again, I was really starting to-:

:Okay, okay, First Aid?! This isn't a social call!: Moonracer said panickedly, :Ratchet just collapsed to the ground in the middle of the Medbay!:

:Yeah, that would be the whole 'crashing' thing I warned you about.: First Aid said dryly.

:What? Okay when you said he 'crashes', I thought you meant his systems crash! Not he-:

:Yeah, no he literally crashes. To the ground.: First Aid sighed, :Hey, tell you what, I'll walk ya through whatcha gotta do now, okay?:

:Okay.: Moonracer said worriedly.

:Stay calm.: First Aid instructed, :Now, what you're going to do is comm Ultra Magnus; he's experienced this 'problem' with Ratchet before. He'll help you get Ratchet in a berth and then once you do that, you leave him there. Understand?:

:Yeah, I got it.: Moonracer laughed nervously, :Don't wake him up.:

:Right. You know how to insert energon lines yet?:

:Yeah.:

:Okay, good.: First Aid said happily, :Yeah just set him up with one of those and you're all set!:

:Okay.: Moonracer said uncertainly, :Thanks for the help, First Aid!:

:No problem, femme.: He said, and Moonracer sighed. She could hear the attempt at flirtation in his voice, :Don't worry about that old coot; he'll be alright. Comm me if you need anything else! Or you know, just if you, I dunno, want to or something.:

:Okay bye!: Moonracer ended the comm abruptly and sighed, glancing worriedly at the unconscious Ratchet on the floor.

:Ultra Magnus? We have a bit of a, um, situation…:

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Moonracer had done everything First Aid had said. Ultra Magnus wasn't exactly thrilled that he had to help the femme carry Ratchet into a berth, but he was pleased to know the medic would be out for a while. Moonracer would have thought the two older bots would get along, but apparently Ratchet was too bossy for Ultra Magnus' taste (which was kind of ironic in Moonracer's opinion).

Now she was just kind of watching Ratchet recharge worriedly. She had thought maybe he would look more peaceful in recharge, but he still looked as grumpy and scowly as ever.

She shook her helm at herself and got up, moving to her computer to begin work on reports. Look at her, worrying about that damn medic. He would be fine….

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Moonracer was nearly done with her reports when Ultra Magnus commed her, summoning her to the main area. She hurried there, wondering what on Cybertron was so important that Ultra Magnus had summoned her, a medic in training.

She arrived a few minutes later, quickly realizing she hadn't been the only one summoned as a few other bots began to trickle in. She spotted Jolt and Mirage walking and talking together. She walked nervously over to them, forcing herself to be friendly, and said, "Hey! Hey, um, what's up?"

"Not much." Jolt grinned, realizing she was nervous, "Hey, it's Moonracer, right?"

"Yeah." She beamed happily

"You've got a little, ah, something on your faceplates." He tapped his chin, "Right here."

"I do?" Moonracer said, embarrassedly swiping at her faceplates.

"Don't be mean to her, Jolt." Mirage shoved the other mech playfully and said kindly to Moonracer, "You didn't have anything on your faceplates. He's just an afthole."

"Oh." Moonracer laughed, relaxing a little, "Good one."

They stood together, talking for a little bit until Moonracer noticed Arcee and Bulkhead across the room and nudged Mirage, "Hey, random question...are they dating? I heard some rumors from Windblade."

"I don't think they actually are, although Bulkhead certainly wouldn't mind." Mirage chuckled, "But what other rumors has Windblade told you?"

Moonracer shook her helm, "Nothing else. Why?"

Jolt gave Mirage a mischievous look, "It just seems that you haven't heard one of the most popular rumors."

"Yes." Mirage said, exasperated, "It seems to be all anyone can talk about."

"Really?" Moonracer looked interested. She normally didn't pay any attention to idle gossip, but she thought maybe she should find out about this if everyone was talking about it, "Who's it about?"

"Two mechs." Jolt nodded

"Prowl and Jazz?"

"No, no, no." Jolt shook his helm, "On this team. Although, I'm sure they got their inspiration from Prowl and Jazz."

"Well?" Moonracer said eagerly, "Who is it?"

Jolt smirked and draped an arm around Mirage's shoulders, and the white and blue bot scowled at him slightly as Moonracer's optics widened.

"Oh! You two-?"

"Yes." Mirage sighed and frowned up at his partner, "You know, you don't have to go around telling everyone."

"But I wanted her to feel more comfortable with us." Jolt winked at Moonracer, "Plus, better she hears it from us than Powerglide or Primus knows who else. Seems like everyone's a fragging gossip these days."

Moonracer frowned a little, not particularly liking the fact that they were talking about her like she wasn't even there. Unfortunately, before she could speak up, Ultra Magnus called for everyone's attention.

As the room quickly quieted down, Ultra Magnus began to speak in his stern and often monotone voice, "Good afternoon. I have called you all here today in response to high levels of Decepticon activity at one of the humans' supposedly 'high security' research facilities. I have organized a team to investigate the matter, which includes Jolt, Drift, Mirage, and….Moonracer." He nodded briskly, "Arcee will remain behind and monitor the comms."

Moonracer's helm began to spin with confusion as she followed Ultra Magnus on his way out, "Excuse me...Ultra Magnus, sir?"

"Yes?"

"You must have made some kind of mistake." She laughed nervously.

He raised an optic ridge at her, "I very rarely make mistakes, young one."

"I did not mean to be disrespectful, sir." Moonracer bit her lip, "It's just that...I'm only a medic in training. I haven't even really begun the actual medic stuff yet, and I'm a terrible soldier, which is why I'm studying to be a medic."

"I have been made aware of this fact already, by Optimus Prime." He informed her, "Which is why I have decided not to allow you to carry any sort of weapon."

She blushed a little at this and he continued, "Nevertheless, I would like you to familiarize yourself with Earth's many strange features and landscapes while on this mission. Even medics have to go into the field occasionally, and I would like you to be prepared."

"I don't think Ratchet would be okay with allowing me to be the only team member with any sort of medical experience, sir." Moonracer argued.

"Yes, but you do not report to Ratchet, do you femme?" Ultra Magnus narrowed his optics, 'You report to me. Thankfully, that pesky medic of yours is not around at the moment to voice his incredibly loud opinions in my audio receptors, but even if he was, it would not matter. I have final say, and you are assigned to this mission. Are we clear, soldier?"

"Yes sir." Moonracer glared at his back as he walked away, and Jolt sidled up to her, grinning.

"Well, looks like you're stuck with us, femme." He poked her side, "Don't worry, I'll letcha know all about anything we encounter 'out there'."

Moonracer groaned mentally. Decepticons, new, unfamiliar territory, Ratchet crashing, and being forced to socialize with her new 'team' all in one day? She wasn't sure if her processor could handle much more.


	6. Chapter 6

Jolt, Mirage, Drift, and Moonracer headed out on their mission an hour later. Moonracer had stopped by the Medbay on her way out and checked on the still unconscious Ratchet, ensuring that his intake was regular and the energon line was still working.

She felt a bit guilty just leaving the older medic there while she went off on a mission she was sure he would disapprove of, but there wasn't much she could do. So, she headed out for her first encounter with Earth.

Jolt explained a lot of interesting things on the drive, mostly about the humans' 'rules of the road'. Moonracer found it strange that the humans had built tiny roads on the sides of the main roads for them to walk on, called 'sidewalks'. They also did not transform at all, but could operate machines that looked vaguely like Cybertronian alt-modes.

Mirage, as self-designated leader of the mission, led them to an abandoned auto-junk yard. He requested that Moonracer scan one of the automobiles so she could blend in a bit more. Her Cybertronian alt-mode didn't look terribly different from the humans' cars, but it was still better to blend in more if possible. After some consideration, she chose a slim and sleek motorcycle, updating the colors to match her own.

This accomplished, they headed towards the research facility, Moonracer getting used to the lessened amount of weight on her wheels.

They slowed down and transformed before they arrived at the facility, creeping up on it slowly and quietly.

The humans had evacuated, so there was no one to see them as they settled behind a large pipeline.

"Two guards." Mirage became visible next to them, back from scouting, "Blitzwing and the dinobot, Grimlock."

As Mirage formulated a strategy with Drift, Jolt familiarized Moonracer with the Decepticons, "Okay, so you don't need to be worrying about this too much; you'll mostly be hanging back while I cover you. But, just for your personal knowledge, that," He pointed to the green dinobot, "is Grimlock, a dinobot and a very powerful fighter. Not too smart though."

"I don't think that's what really matters at this point." Moonracer laughed nervously.

"Yeah, well." He chuckled and pointed to the other bot, "That is Blitzwing, a triple changer. He's a bit mentally unhinged, but I mean what 'Con isn't?"

"Are you finished?" Mirage nudged Jolt, annoyed, and raised his optic ridges at Moonracer.

They both nodded and the four of them began shifting to the left behind the pipe until it curved back around to the building. Then they began creeping up on the Decepticons from the side.

Unfortunately, Blitzwing happened to lean out and spot them before Mirage and Drift could sneak ahead and take them down.

"Grimlock, you big stupid dinobot!" The red faced 'Con yelled, firing at the Autobots, "You're supposed to watch the right!"

"My bad, Blitz." Grimlock apologized.

"Don't apologize, just attack them!" Blitzwing snarled in response as they rushed at the Autobots. Moonracer jumped a little when his faceplates shifted and turned into a black and red face with a jack o' lantern's smile.

"Dieee Autobots! Hahahaha!" Blitzwing cackled manically as Grimlock growled at an evasive Drift, trying to smash him with his tail.

As Moonracer watched Mirage battle with Blitzwing, his faceplates shifted again into a monocled blue face. "Perhaps we should comm for backup, Grimlock." He said, calmly dodging Mirage's attacks.

"Mayb-" Grimlock started, but Drift clunked him on the helm with the hilt of his sword, knocking him out before he could finish.

"Proceed with caution." Mirage whispered from the front as they crept through the door, turning invisible.

It wasn't very easy for them to maneuver through the tiny, human sized halls of the research center. Jolt, the largest of their group, was forced to army crawl. Finally, they made it to the vault, where the Decepticons were already infiltrating.

"Autobots!" A Decepticon called into the vault to his partner.

"Frag it all." Jolt swore next to Moonracer, cocking his blaster as Mirage and Drift sprang forward, "It's Barricade."

The large cop car seemed to have no difficulty taking on both Mirage and Drift at once. The only thing keeping him from crushing them both was the blasts from Jolt and the fact that Mirage was invisible nearly the entire time.

A moment later, a large purple mech with a single red optic stepped out of the vault, holding a strange mechanical sphere. Moonracer inhaled sharply; she didn't need Jolt to tell her who that was. It was Shockwave, the Decepticon leader on Earth.

"Jolt." She grabbed his arm nervously, "Don't worry about covering me, just go help them."

Jolt was aiming his blaster with one optic closed when he replied, "Already got them covered."

He fired off a shot, striking Shockwave in the chassis. The large purple mech collapsed, still clutching the strange rod. Barricade swore and commed for a ground bridge.

"This isn't over, Auto-scum." He snarled, dragging his leader through while still firing at them.

"Dammit." Mirage said angrily when the 'Cons had disappeared, "This mission was a complete failure. We let them get away!"

"Calm, Mirage." Drift advised and the white and blue bot exhaled.

"It wasn't a complete failure." Jolt pointed out, "Shockwave is at least off the grid for a little while, if not permanently."

"I suppose." Mirage sighed, "Let's go report back."

The four of them exited the building and then transformed, speeding back to base.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ratchet didn't wake up until nearly two days later. Moonracer had been a bit worried; she hadn't had much to do since the mission, so she spent most of her time worrying that maybe he was dying or something.

He came around slowly, opening his optics to stare at her blearily. It took him almost a full minute to recognize her and then ask, "Moonracer...how long was I out?"

"Only two days." She said apprehensively.

"Only two days." He repeated sleepily, closing his optics, "Okay…" And then he jerked awake.

"Two days?!"

"Yes Ratch. Two days."

"Why in Pit didn't you wake me up?" Ratchet yelled, "What if there was an emergency or something?"

"There wasn't anything I couldn't handle." Moonracer said calmly, "Miko needed a band-aid for a paper cut and Skids dislocated his shoulder again. If it had been an emergency, I would have woken you up."

"You're too damn young to understand how to react in an emergency." Ratchet growled

"And you're too damn old to understand when you need to recharge!" Moonracer fired right back, "Think about it like this, Ratchet; what are you going to do if you crash in the middle of an emergency and I can't wake you up, just like I couldn't when you first passed out?"

"I-well-" Ratchet rubbed his neck.

"Either start taking care of yourself or teach me how to fix someone if there is an emergency." Moonracer said firmly, "No more of this."

"Okay fine." The medic caved a little, scrubbing his faceplates, "Give me a moment to wake up fully, will you?" He sat quietly for a moment and then asked, "What else happened while I was out?"

"Nothing else." Moonracer lied guiltily.

"Huh." He scrutinized her faceplates, "Moonracer, did I mention that in addition to being a medic a scientist, an engineer, and the second in command, I'm also an expert at lie-detection?"

"N-no. You didn't, um, mention that." Moonracer flushed a little.

"Well, I am." He tilted his helm, "Now, I wouldn't say that you're Optimus level bad at lying, but kind of close."

"Optimus is a bad liar?"

"The worst." Ratchet chuckled, "I can see right through him. And don't change the subject."

Moonracer studied her peds, "What gives mine away?"

He looked at her, grinning, "Everyone's got a tell, but I won't tell you yours. And you're only bad at it because you're young. You haven't had enough practice lying confidently yet. The only reason Optimus is so old and doesn't know how to lie right is because he hardly ever does it, and he feels so damn guilty when he does. It's all over his faceplates." He tapped his ped against the edge of the berth, "But I believe you were going to tell me what happened while I was out?"

"Ultra Magnus...assigned me to a mission."

"He-what?" Ratchet said incredulously, "But you-you haven't even finished basic training!"

"I tried to tell him." Moonracer sighed, "Actually, I did tell him, he just didn't listen."

"That fragger is so dead." Ratchet growled, standing up. He got a little woozy from a helm-rush for a moment, but then he stormed out of the Medbay.

Moonracer was dismayed to note that he grabbed his wrench as he left.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ultra Magnus was spending a quiet moment alone in his office. It wasn't often that he got to just sit, occasionally removing a speck of dirt from his desk. It seemed nothing needed to be done; Mirage had reported the mission a failure, and nothing else was going wrong.

He wondered how long that could possibly last.

His thought was answered when he heard angry pedsteps pounding towards his office, followed by an "Ultra Magnus!" as Ratchet stormed into the room.

"Yes?" Ultra Magnus said, a little irked while still maintaining his polite demeanor.

"Don't play with me, mech." Ratchet came forwards, slamming both his servos on Ultra Magnus' desk, one servo still gripping his wrench, "You sent my apprentice-my untrained apprentice-on a mission?"

"She needed to get out on Earth, explore the new territory." Ultra Magnus rubbed his temple wearily, "The mission was also low-risk."

"Low risk?!" Ratchet smacked the commander on the helm with his wrench, hard, "Fragging Shockwave was there! And Barricade!" He pointed an angry digit at him, "You put her in danger!"

"Put her in danger?" Ultra Magnus swore, "Listen to yourself, you ridiculous medic. We're at war for Primus sake! There will always be danger! And help me out here, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding; why are you so concerned about the well-being of someone you just met, what, a week ago?"

Ratchet was beginning to turn a rageful blue, and he opened his mouth to scream at Ultra Magnus just as Mirage burst into the room.

"Ultra Magnus!" He said urgently, "A Mr. Heo Takomi is on comm for you. Says it's urgent."

"Put him on the screen." Ultra Magnus sighed.

An Asian man's face popped up on the telecomm screen and he bowed politely, "Hello. I am Heo Takomi."

"Hello, Mr. Takomi. I am Ultra Magnus." The red and blue bot raised an optic ridge, "What reason have you for comming us?"

"I am the head research scientist at the center that the Decepticons raided earlier today." The small man sighed, "I had just finished a project I was working on the day before, and it is now missing. It would appear the Decepticons obtained what they came for."

"What was this 'project', Mr. Takomi?" Ultra Magnus said wearily.

"It was intended to be a source of renewable energy, capable of powering up to four cities." Takomi rubbed his face wearily, "However, with all the energy it collects, it can be modified, with some difficulty, into a detonator of sorts."

"And how dangerous is this detonator?"

"Very." Takomi looked weary, "I cannot begin to describe the damage it could inflict. Please, if the Decepticons succeed in modifying it, it must be destroyed. You must destroy it. I can trust no one else to stop the Decepticons from unleashing it on our world."

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The Decepticon Medbay was eerily quiet when Shockwave finally awoke. He looked around, musing that he had never actually been in this Medbay. The ship Starscream had provided him was fairly new, as well as the crew, although he had already known some of them.

He winced, feeling the pain radiating from his chassis where that Autobot had shot him. He attempted to sit up but a small pair of servos pushed him back down. He glanced to his right, surprised to find the medic suddenly there. She had come up silently.

Shockwave studied her as she checked all of his vital signs, realizing he had never personally met his own medic. She was small framed, but her optics were a resilient silver, a strange coloring. She was almost entirely white, with sparse amounts of purple, and she wore a mask over the lower half of her face, so all that was visible was her optics.

"We have not met, medic." He intoned deeply, "What is your designation?"

"You need to rest." She said, completely ignoring his question, "Stop talking."

He stared at her, incredulous, for a moment. Finally, he said, "Femme, do you know who I am?"

"I know exactly who you are." She tapped her stylus against her datapad and then scribbled something, "Now stop talking before you wear out your systems. You have sustained a lot of damage."

"You have not answered my question" Shockwave said, annoyed. She stared at him with those piercing silver optics narrowed slightly until he repeated his question, "What is your designation?"

"If I tell you, will you be silent?"

"...Fine."

"I am called Cyclesmith." She turned her back to him, rummaging through a supply cabinet, "Such a pleasure to finally meet our great leader."

"Do I detect sarcasm in your voice, femme?"

"Are you still talking, Shockwave?"

He stared at her warily for a moment, comming Barricade, :Barricade, is the invention secure?:

:Yes, Shockwave.: The police car responded, :I am glad to hear you are well. I will have the team begin the invention's modification immediately.:

:Good. Proceed as planned.:


	7. Chapter 7

A/N-Just a note guys when I wrote "creeper" later, it doesn't mean pervert. That is the term for those rolling chairs that mechanics use to roll under cars and stuff.

It had been nearly a week since the invention had been stolen, and the Autobots were no closer to locating and destroying it. Ultra Magnus had teams scouring the skies for any trace of the Decepticon ship, but there was nothing to be seen.

Moonracer was waiting impatiently for Ratchet to finish repairing one of the power canisters for the base. He had it propped up and was rolling underneath it to fix it on a creeper.

"Dammit Ratchet." Moonracer sighed, pushing herself around in the medic's desk chair, "You're so old you move slower than an Earth turtle."

"Yeah?" The medic's voice was muffled under the canister, "Well, you're so young that you try to do everything at the pace of a turbofox. Just as annoying and yippy, too." There were a few bangs and then he added, "And get out of my chair."

Moonracer didn't move and instead said, "You're so old I bet you were part of the crew of Ark 1."

Ratchet, who had in fact been a crew member of the original Ark, rolled out from under the canister and gave her a narrowed-optics look, "You're so young I'm surprised you even know what the Ark was."

Moonracer flushed, a little ticked that he was insulting her intelligence now, and shot back, "Oh yeah? You're so old I bet you fall asleep in the middle of interfacing!" And then she added, "Ha!" with a pleased look on her faceplates.

But Ratchet, of course, was not finished. He grinned mockingly at her and with a little gleam in his optic said, "You're so young I bet you've never even interfaced before, have you?"

"I-well-" Moonracer blushed about a million shades of blue and Ratchet cackled, rolling back under the canister.

"Point for me!" He crowed triumphantly.

"Such an afthole." Moonracer muttered, embarrassed.

Ratchet finished his work on the canister a few minutes later and stood up, dusting his servos off and grinning at Moonracer.

"Shut up, alright?" She complained, "Quit laughing at me."

"I wasn't, but I am now." He laughed, moving to his computer and shooing her out of his chair, "All I'm gonna say is you set yourself up for that one."

"I didn't-ugh." She scrubbed her faceplates, "Just moving on, okay?"

"Whatever you say, Moonracer." He chuckled and she glared at him.

"What are we doing today?"

"There's a lot of reports to be done, since Ultra Magnus keeps sending bots out to search for that invention." Ratchet sighed, "Teaching will have to wait."

Moonracer groaned in weak protest and shuffled off to her computer resignedly.

She had finally settled into doing her reports when she reached up to the shelf for another datapad. It did not come down easily she'd hoped, but instead the entire stack toppled over on her with several loud bangs.

Ratchet peered over at her as she rubbed her faceplates, wincing in pain, "You alright, apprentice?"

"I think." She blinked and then squeezed one optic shut, "Nope. Something definitely happened to my optic."

Ratchet stood quickly and pointed to her stool, "Sit. Let me check it out."

She sat obediently and he began muttering to himself, searching for his penlight, "Probably just a scratch or something minor."

He pulled another stool over to be across from her and instructed, "Follow the light with your optics."

He placed one of his servos on her faceplates to keep her helm still and her spark immediately began to go haywire. Having Ratchet this close to her, those dark blue optics so laser-focused on her own, was making her nervous and uncomfortable for some reason. She was afraid to vent too loudly for the fear that he might hear it, so she could hardly breathe.

Ratchet was attempting to just do his job and make sure his apprentice was alright, but he kept noticing things he shouldn't have been noticing. For example, how smooth the metal of her faceplates was under his servo. Or how her optics were such a light blue that they were almost as silver as the stars; little pinpricks of light.

"Ratchet?" Moonracer breathed quietly and he realized he had been staring directly into her optics instead of looking for any scratches. He also realized something else at that moment, something that terrified him completely.

He clicked off his penlight and stood abruptly, breaking optic contact with her. Rummaging in a drawer, he pulled out some optic drops and handed them to her, "Here. You've got a small scratch on your left optic. Take these once a day."

"Are you alright?" Moonracer asked, exhaling in relief now that he was a little further away, "You seem….I don't know."

"I'm fine." He said quickly, "Just remembered I need to comm someone.". He spun on his heel and walked rapidly into his office, leaving Moonracer staring after him, still trying to catch her breath.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooO

"Ratchet, what is going on?" Optimus asked his friend. Through the comm screen he could see the medic with his helm in his servos.

"You must take her back." Ratchet said through clenched denta.

"What?"

"Take her back!" Ratchet yelled, raising his helm to glare at the Prime, "I can't do it anymore; I won't!"

Optimus could see in his optics how freaked out he was and he asked, concerned, "Why? What has she done?"

"She is not the problem." Ratchet said miserably, "I am. Please, Optimus, I'm begging you. Take her back."

"I rephrase my question: what have you done?" Optimus sighed, "I'm not going to remove her for no reason."

"Remove her because she's causing me to have a mental breakdown then."

"No, Ratchet."

The medic huffed, "I can't-I…." He swallowed thickly, struggling to get his words out, "I think….I think I'm falling for her."

"Falling for her?" Optimus questioned, "As in…"

"As in I'm the biggest fragging pervert in the entire universe." Ratchet scrubbed his faceplates, "I don't know what in Pit is wrong with me. She's just a kid!"

"Technically, she is an adult…" Optimus murmured thoughtfully.

"Please Optimus." The medic put both of his servos flat on his desk, "You need to remove her. It is no longer safe for her to be here, and I don't want to put her in any kind of danger or make her even slightly uncomfortable."

"You really have grown to care for her, haven't you?"

"I-" Ratchet was distraught, "Please just take her, Optimus. I don't want this."

The Prime looked at him quietly for a moment and then said one simple word, "No."

Ratchet stared at him, unable to believe what he was hearing. Finally, he managed to choke out an enraged, "No?!"

"You have not had anyone to care for you since Crossblade died." Optimus made optic contact with him, "I have watched you go through every form of misery, anger, and hurt at her death and her leaving you, knowing that there was nothing I could do to ease your pain. And over the years, you have grown more distant and uncaring about generally everything. Until now. Until this femme." Optimus sighed, glancing at Ratchet, "I hate to do this to you old friend, but I wish more than anything else for you to he happy again."

"You can't do this to me, Prime." Ratchet said furiously, "I don't want to go through this again. Love is too damn painful to ever be worth it." He closed his optics and sighed, "Please, please, Optimus, for me. Reconsider."

Optimus smiled unhappily, "I am doing this for you. Even if you hate me for it.". Then he cancelled the comm and the screen went blank.

Ratchet let out a frustrated howl of anger and threw his wrench through the telecomm screen, shattering the glass everywhere.

"Calm down, calm down." Ratchet muttered, forcing himself to vent regularly, "Just need to ignore her, that's all. She is only my apprentice."


	8. Chapter 8

Over the next week, Moonracer noticed that Ratchet seemed a bit distant. He still joked with her a little bit, but he seemed almost reluctant to ever let things get too friendly between them.

She had only been at the base for a month, and she wasn't sure if she knew Ratchet well enough to ask him about it. It certainly felt like she had known him forever, but that was probably just because she spent all day with him.

At around midday, Windblade popped into the Medbay to check on Moonracer. Ratchet, fortunately, was out getting energon and delivering datapads to Ultra Magnus, so the two femmes were able to catch up and have a nice long chat.

Finally Windblade asked, "So how's everything going with the Doctor?"

Moonracer was sitting on a med-berth, swinging her peds back and forth. Windblade had made a habit of never sitting down, so she could always be prepared to defend herself or others at a moment's notice.

So she was standing, facing Moonracer when her friend said, "Umm… alright I guess. He seems a little distant lately."

"Distant?" Windblade questioned, "Distant how?"

"Like we always joke around and stuff, but lately he seems almost hesitant to goof off around me." Moonracer sighed, "I don't know…"

"Ratchet jokes around with you?" Windblade looked surprised, "I thought he was supposed to be super stiff and cranky. What happened to him being a 'perfectionist' like you said when we first got here?"

"Um, I don't know…" Moonracer flushed, "I guess I got to know him better."

Ratchet paused outside the Medbay on his way back from his errands, realizing the two femmes were talking about him.

"Moon…" Windblade trailed off, grinning at her friend, "You don't like him...do you?"

"What?" Moonracer scoffed, "That rusty old geezer? Please."

Windblade laughed and the two femmes resumed chatting as Ratchet stood outside the door, steaming in silent anger. _Rusty old geezer, am I?_ , He fumed to himself, _Well if that's what she thinks, then so be it._

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ratchet returned to the Medbay nearly an hour later, long after Windblade had left. He had used the time to get some of his anger out, so now he was scarily calm.

"Hey Ratch." Moonracer glanced up from her reports when he walked in, "Whatcha been up to?"

When he didn't respond but went straight for his desk and sat, Moonracer frowned, "Ratchet?"

The white and red medic ignored her completely, powering his computer on, and Moonracer wondered if maybe his audio-receptors were turned off.

So, she strolled over to his desk and waved a servo directly in front of his faceplates, "Ratchet? You have your audio receptors turned off or something?"

The medic raised his helm and glared directly at her, his optics furious. That was how Moonracer knew that he wasn't just annoyed; Ratchet was pissed. That and the chill of terror that shot through her when he looked at her like that.

"O-kay." Moonracer said nervously and Ratchet narrowed his optics at her before returning to his work, "I guess I'll check back with you later."

She walked quickly back to her computer, confusion and guilt squeezing her spark. Had she done something wrong? But what could she have done to piss Ratchet off so much?

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Ratchet hadn't spoken a single word to Moonracer in nearly two weeks. She had pleaded with him to tell her why he was so mad, what she had done wrong, but he remained silent.

For her medical training, he would drop a datapad on her desk with assigned page numbers for her to read, or sometimes just a tutorial of himself performing procedure.

No one had noticed how angry Ratchet was because he always seemed mad. The only people who were in the Medbay often enough to feel the tension were the twins and Miko, but the twins never noticed. Miko, however, certainly did.

"What's up with you guys?" She asked Moonracer one day while the young apprentice was repairing a scrape on her leg.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Moonracer sighed. Ratchet was on the other side of the room, so he didn't hear Miko's question.

"C'mon." Miko rolled her eyes, "The tension between you two is so thick I could cut it like a slice of cake."

Moonracer sighed again, "I don't know. He's mad at me for some reason, but he won't tell me what it is. He won't even speak to me."

"Huh." Miko said thoughtfully, an idea beginning to form in her brain. Fortunately, she was stopped by Ultra Magnus summoning everyone to the main hangar.

"Good afternoon everyone." He said briskly once everyone had arrived, "A bit of a situation with the invention has arisen. We have received word that the Decepticons have in fact modified it and are intending to set it off in Los Angeles, California."

The Autobots began to murmur among themselves until Ultra Magnus silenced them with a look and continued, "We will need everyone behind this mission in order to defeat the Decepticons and destroy the invention. Everyone prepare to leave soon; Ratchet and Moonracer, you'll remain behind and monitor comms."

Moonracer groaned inwardly, not looking forward to being trapped in the Medbay with the now silent medic. Reluctantly, she followed him back to the Medbay as everyone prepared to leave.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

After about two straight hours sitting in silence, Moonracer could not take it anymore.

She was laying on a counter, tossing her stylus up and catching it, when she asked, "Ratch?"

When it was met with silence, she sighed, "How long are you not going to talk to me?"

He stared at his keyboard, looking a tad worn out. To be honest, ignoring Moonracer was harder than he had thought it would be. He would got to tell her something he thought was funny all the time, but then remember he was pissed at her and clamp his mouth shut.

He glanced over at her for a moment when she was looking away, trying to catch her stylus. For some damn reason she looked even more attractive laying down, and Ratchet growled at himself, exasperated, and looked away quickly. That was the other part of why he was doing this, to make himself stay away from her.

"Listen…" She glanced over at him, "I'm sorry for whatever I've done. I don't know what it was, but I never meant to make you upset with me."

With a tired sigh, Ratchet pushed up off his desk and stood, making his way back to his office. Moonracer watched him go sadly, wincing as the door banged shut behind him, breaking the silence.

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

The Autobots finally returned nearly three hours later, a bit battered and bruised. There were only two severe injuries, which Moonracer let Ratchet handle.

Ultra Magnus made an announcement later that everyone was very pleased about.

He said, almost smiling, "We have finally destroyed the invention. Earth is safe again. Good work team."

Moonracer breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this, knowing Windblade wouldn't be sent out on anymore crazy missions to locate that thing.

The Earth was also safe too, although the planet and it's people weren't as important to Moonracer yet.

She was starting to find Miko's antics more amusing and endearing, however. She had the small human in the Medbay, still working on bandaging the scrape on her leg, when the girl asked, "Hey Moonracer...do you know what a date is?"

"A date?" Moonracer questioned, "No, I am not familiar with this term. What is a date?"

"Ah." Miko grinned, "A date is just when one of your friends takes you to meet one of their friends. And you would say we're friends, right Moonracer?"

"Yes?" Moonracer said uneasily.

"Right." Miko nodded pleasantly, "So, I would like to set you up on a date with one of my friends. Did you hear about the gala?"

"No?"

"Yeah, Takomi, the scientist guy who we destroyed the invention for, is throwing a huge thank you gala for us." Miko said excitedly, "It's kind of like a fancy party, but I'm thinking the Autobots will have to use their holoforms to fit in the building. Anyways, that's where I'm thinking you should meet my friend."

"And what is your friend's designation?" Moonracer asked resignedly.

"His name?" Miko considered, "Oh, it's um….Ryan. And he's human, so you should pretend to be human too."

"Why?" Moonracer looked confused, "Isn't that lying?"

"No, of course not." Miko grinned happily, "It's just like a game. C'mon, it'll be fun!"

"Okay…." Moonracer said hesitantly, "I guess I can meet your friend Ryan." She paused and then thought, "But if I'm pretending to be a human, don't I need a human name too?"

"Oh yeah." Miko nodded excitedly, "How 'bout...Mona!"

"Mona it is." Moonracer sighed reluctantly.


	9. Chapter 9

The gala was a week later and the fact that Ratchet was still refusing to talk to Moonracer was making her miserable as she got ready. Miko, who was now only a foot smaller than her holoform, was helping her pick out what to wear.

Moonracer's holoform was a bit slim, like her, with mint green hair She realized it was a bit of a strange color for a human, but she decided to keep it. It was automatically updated to represent how old she would look as a human, so she appeared to be in her early twenties.

"So, what is your friend Ryan like?" Moonracer asked as Miko shuffled through the options for the holoform to wear.

"Here try this." The small girl said, shoving a green dress with puffy sleeves at her, "Ryan? Oh, he's um...a bit particular. Has a bit of a temper. But all in all, he's a nice guy, once you get to know him."

"He's sounds okay." Moonracer agreed, admiring how the fabric rustled delicately against her holoform's skin. The newest version of the holoforms was updated so that the Cybertronian using it could feel everything the holoform was experiencing. It came with a drawback, however. If her holoform was injured, she herself would be injured too. She would have to be careful tonight; humans were fragile creatures.

"Too much green." Miko made a face, "What do you think?"

Moonracer sighed at herself in the mirror, hating to agree. She really did like this dress, but Miko was right, it didn't go so well.

Reluctantly, she took it off and handed it back and Miko passed her a midnight blue dress with small sequins. When she put it on, it hugged her curves nicely and wrapped to a decent length at her knees.

"Wow…" Miko shook her head, speechless for once, "That looks….amazing. Look at your eyes!"

Moonracer glanced in the mirror, noticing that her eyes were a much brighter blue than they normally were. It looked….good.

Miko twisted Moonracer's hair into at elegant bun for her and then slipped quickly into a pink and black dress that looked super punky.

The girls were ready to go.

OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Moonracer gave Miko a ride to gala, which was being hosted at Takomi's home. One of his butlers directed them to park on the third floor of the parking garage, and Moonracer parked, leaving her alt-mode there and engaging her holoform.

She walked to the house with Miko chattering next to her, feeling her excitement grow. She had never been to a party before, but it was beginning to sound fun.

They entered the house and were escorted to the ballroom, a large room where the main party was taking place.

Once they entered, Moonracer's eyes widened, taking in the eccentric scene. The ballroom was very large and crowded with people laughing, talking and dancing to the popping music. The room was strung with gold and silver streamers and had had large floor to ceiling windows, overlooking the lake that the property was at the edge of.

A human female with short red and black hair noticed the two immediately and walked over. She was wearing a custom tailored suit and her hair stuck out at all ends. Moonracer frowned, thinking the way she walked so carefully and silently was familiar.

"Hey Moon." The human greeted, and Moonracer grinned, realizing it was Windblade.

"Hey 'Blade." She returned, hugging her friend, "Love your holoform."

"Thanks." Windblade grinned, "Ready to party?"

"Oh yeah." Moonracer nodded excitedly, "Miko has set me up on a 'date', to meet one of her friends, Ryan!"

"Oh, speaking of which." Miko said hastily, seeing Windblade's holoform frown, "I think I see him over there. C'mon!"

The little girl grabbed Moonracer's arm and dragged her away as Windblade said, "Wait, Moon-I don't think….". But they were already far from her before she could say anything.

Miko towed Moonracer over to a table full of colorful foods and sparkling beverages and tapped on a stout, broad shouldered man.

"Hey Ryan." She greeted as he turned around and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Ryan?" He questioned and then nodded, "Oh yeah. Ryan. Right." He looked beyond Miko to Moonracer, "You must be Mona?"

Ryan appeared to be in his late 50's to early 60's, but was still remarkably handsome for such an aged human. He had grey salt and pepper hair and was wearing a smart tuxedo with a cute little bow. Moonracer was beginning to like Earth fashion more and more.

"Hello?" Ryan waved his hand a little impatiently and Moonracer started, realizing he had asked if she was Mona.

"Hi, yes I'm Mona. Sorry." She flushed, tucking her new hair behind her ears nervously.

"Hold on a second." Ryan studied her intently and Moonracer realized that his eyes were an intense, focused dark blue. His voice was somehow familiar to her too, especially when he turned to Miko and snapped, "Miko, are you fragging serious?"

"What?" Miko said innocently.

"How stupid do you two think I am?" He growled angrily, "I know that's fragging Moonracer. It's obvious."

"I'm sorry...do I know you?" Moonracer said, the pieces not quite fitting yet.

"She didn't know." Miko sighed reluctantly, "She doesn't know what a date is either; I told her it was where one of your friends introduces you to a new friend."

"Naive femme." He sighed and Moonracer flushed angrily, not even realizing that he'd said 'femme' not 'girl'.

"Hey, I don't know who in Pit you are, but you've no right to insult me like that."

"Moonracer." He sighed wearily, "It's me."

The voice, the eyes, the attitude, and the appearance suddenly clicked together in Moonracer's processor, and she whispered, shocked, "Ratchet?"

The mech looked at her with those somber deep blue eyes and nodded, confirming that this was his holoform.

"What-why…?" She looked at Miko, confused, and the small girl's shoulders slumped.

"A date isn't what I told you." She sighed, "A date means hanging out with someone and getting to know them romantically."

"Romantically?" Moonracer's eyes widened, looking at Ratchet, "Did you know about this?"

Ratchet hesitated, "I didn't know it was you...but I knew Miko was setting me up on a date."

"Oh." Moonracer swallowed, realizing that meant Ratchet was looking for someone to 'date'. And he was disappointed when it was her.

"I was just trying to get you two to talk to each other." Miko said helplessly, "And it was working, wasn't it?"

Ratchet was studying Moonracer, unhappily realizing that she was achingly beautiful in every form she took. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him quizzically, and his spark felt like it was being squeezed every time he looked at her, remembering that she thought he was just a rusty old mech.

So that was why he met Moonracer's eyes sadly and responded to Miko's question with, "Not anymore."

He turned and began trudging away, and she followed him, "Ratchet, wait!"

She caught up to him and put her hands on both of his shoulders, begging him, "Please, Ratchet. Please just tell me what I did wrong. Please." 

He shrugged her hands off of him angrily, taking a step back, "I don't want to talk to you, Moonracer."

"I can't-" Moonracer inhaled sharply and Ratchet realized she was holding in tears, "I can't do this anymore. I-I miss you, Ratch. A lot."

His spark twisted painfully at her words, wanting so badly for them to be true. But instead he shook his helm, backing away.

He eyed her deliberately as he pretended to be speaking loudly to a passing waiter, "Pardon me. Rusty old geezer coming through.". He threw her another angered and hurt glare and continued walking as the waiter gave him a bewildered look. Moonracer's spark sank to her peds as she realized he had overheard her talking to Windblade about him.

"No…" She said, covering her mouth, "Ratchet…"

She attempted to follow him, but as he walked closer to the windows, a metallic spear was hurled through one, shattering the glass and plunging into his chest.

As Moonracer's eyes widened in horror and Takomi's guests began to scream and panic, Ratchet crumpled to the floor, his holoform flickering and blood spilling down his chest.


	10. Chapter 10

The Decepticons continued their attack, bursting through the windows and firing at the crowd. Holoforms began disappearing left and right as the Autobots returned to their true selves and began to defend the humans.

Ratchet's unconscious holoform flickered and faded before Moonracer could reach him. She panicked a little and immediately cancelled her holoform, wrenching awake in her true form in the parking garage.

"Ratchet?" She yelled, running through the many levels of the parking garage, trying desperately to find him.

She finally found his crumpled form on the first floor, unconscious in a pool of his own energon. "Oh, Ratchet." She whispered, holding in tears for the second time that night as she dropped to her knees by his side, "Oh no…"

Moonracer began to try to stem the bleeding as Windblade arrived at her side.

"Moon, we gotta get him out of here." She urged and Moonracer nodded wordlessly. The two femmes struggled to hoist himi up as Windblade commed for a ground bridge.

Once they got him through the ground bridge and into the Medbay, Windblade began frantically hailing First Aid with comms as Moonracer hovered over the berth that Ratchet was dyeing blue with his energon, trying to staunch the bleeding.

When First Aid finally arrived, he took one look at the bloody scene, and immediately went to work.

"Hang in there, you old coot." He muttered worriedly to the unconscious Ratchet, gingerly tapping the older medic's Autobot insignia.

Windblade went back to see if everyone else had made it out okay while Moonracer stayed with First Aid, trying to assist him in any way she could.

Eventually, First Aid glanced up and caught the tear-stained, worried sick look on Moonracer's faceplates and said, "You need to get out of here."

"I'm okay." Moonracer wiped her optics shakily, "I want to stay and help."

"No, you actually need to leave." First Aid said firmly, still repairing Ratchet, "You're so damn anxious and worried that you're making me anxious, and I can't be anxious right now. So, please, just step outside for a little bit, okay Moonracer? I promise I'll let you know if anything changes."

Moonracer nodded mutely and stepped out of the Medbay, glancing back worriedly at the older medic before the door swung shut.

She sank onto the bench outside the Medbay, tears streaming down her faceplates as she resigned herself to waiting.

A few hours into the ordeal, Windblade came by to check on Moonracer. She sat down next to her on the bench, deciding now was not the time to stand. She informed Moonracer that everyone else had gotten out safely except Takomi, who had been taken by the Decepticons. The remaining Autobots had organized a rescue mission and were heading out now, fearing that Takomi had been snatched so the Decepticons could force him to build another detonator.

"Are you going?" Moonracer asked, wiping her faceplates quickly.

Windblade hesitated, "I don't...I don't want to leave you here like this."

"No, go." Moonracer waved her servo, "Do something productive. I hate the fact that I have to just sit here; I don't want you to have to too."

"Okay." Windblade said worriedly. She gave Moonracer a comforting pat on the back before heading out.

First Aid came out a little while later, tired and a bit shaky, and Moonracer immediately shot up.

"I've done all I can." First Aid sighed, "It's up to him to pull through now." He took a sinking seat on the bench and gestured for her to go inside.

Apprehensively, Moonracer nudged the door open and approached Ratchet's berth, tiptoeing like she was afraid to disturb the medic. Not much had changed; the medic was still sprawled on the medical berth, his once sharp optics dull and offline. One of his legs dangled carelessly off the edge of the berth. First Aid had at least repaired his wound, so now there was no fresh energon, only the dried crustiness of the berth.

Seeing him like this brought a fresh array of tears to Moonracer's optics. Hesitantly, she reached for his servo and threaded his digits between her own.

"Oh, Ratch." Her voice caught on his name, "Please. Please don't go. You can't leave me."

Moonracer had never noticed until this moment, but Ratchet's constant, comforting presence had always seemed to hover around the Medbay, warming it. Now, Moonracer was terrified to realize she could feel it beginning to fade.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered, bowing her helm to be closer to his, almost as if to ensure he would hear her, "I didn't mean to-I shouldn't have insulted you like that, Ratchet. And I hate to think-" She paused, swiping at her optics so that the tears wouldn't fall onto his faceplates, "I hate to think that the last time we spoke I-"

She gazed down at him, wishing for all the galaxy that she could tell him how her insides churned whenever he came too close. How she loved when she came to the Medbay and he was fully immersed in some madman project, optics gleaming with an indescribable happiness. How they could joke with ease, and he could make her laugh until her faceplates hurt from smiling so much. How even holding his servo right now was practically giving her a spark attack.

Instead of all of those wild, crazy, naive things that most likely would not be reciprocated, Moonracer said simply, "I'm sorry I said all those things about you Ratchet, but even if they were true….you're my rusty old geezer."

She bowed her helm lower, tucking her chin into her chassis, as Ratchet's optics silently flicked on. He regarded her with a confused expression, and realizing she couldn't see him at this moment, remained completely still. He studied her as his processor struggled to remember what those words she had just said were, as he was coming into consciousness. His optics widened slightly, realizing she was holding his servo.

 _Why in Pit is she holding my servo?_ He thought bewilderedly, _Doesn't she think I'm just some old, gross mech? What in the name of the Allspark…_

And then it clicked. He remembered what she'd said, that insane phrase that he must have misheard, _She said 'You're my rusty old geezer'. Definitely with an emphasis on the 'my'. Oh Primus. What do I-_

And then he told his processor to shut up. This was too much thinking; he needed to act. He needed a definitive act that would show her how much he cared, but that he could always pass off later as being some delusional thing he had done as a result of pain, if need be.

It was so simple.

He reached up with his servo and placed it lightly on her faceplates, startling her helm back up. She locked optics with him, and his dark blue optics studied hers for a moment, before he stretched up and caught her lips in a kiss.

Moonracer's optics widened, but her surprise was quickly overcome with a burst of all manners of emotion. There was elation, embarrassment, panic, confusion, and oh-so-much joy. Ratchet was kissing her and she was kissing back, barely able to believe it. She could tell he was experienced at this, which wasn't exactly a bad thing.

The kiss was, unfortunately, short lived as not a moment later, a large crashing sound startled them out of it, followed by a lot of swearing. First Aid had walked in to check on Moonracer, and was now glaring at them, a datapad smashed on the floor.

"Are you fragging kidding me?" He snapped, gathering the bits of datapad on the floor.

"Problem, First Aid?" Ratchet said bemusedly, and perhaps just a tad smugly, and the younger medic scowled at him, before switching his angry gaze to Moonracer.

"Moonracer, when I said 'You'll grow to love him', this wasn't at all what I meant." He vented deeply, appearing to try to calm himself down, and walked briskly over to check Ratchet's vitals, shooing Moonracer away. She gave Ratchet a fluttery little smile behind his back, and he winked back at her, before she walked shakily over to her desk and sat.

"I suppose you're pleased with yourself." First Aid growled quietly, quite hating his former instructor, as Ratchet grinned happily.

"Just a bit."

"Could you stop fragging rubbing it in my faceplates for ten seconds?"

"I'm just smiling."

"You're leering at me, I can feel it."

Ratchet simply smiled and said nothing in response, glancing over at the attractive and thoroughly embarrassed femme, thinking to himself wearily, _This should be...interesting._


	11. Chapter 11

Moonracer didn't come into the Medbay until well past the end of the morning, dreading facing Ratchet. She had left him in the capable, and slightly angered servos of First Aid, and gone to bed. She had barely recharged the entire night, remembering Ratchet's lips ghosting across hers all too quickly.

Reluctantly, she trudged through the door into the Medbay to find the older medic walking around, organizing files as if nothing had happened last night, as if he hadn't almost died.

First Aid was nowhere to be seen, but he had at least wrapped Ratchet's chassis in fresh new bandages before he left. Moonracer winced internally, anticipating having to deal with First Aid later.

When she entered, Ratchet's usually quick optics met hers tiredly, and she could immediately tell that he'd had another night without recharge.

"Hey," He greeted lamely and she blushed a little.

"Hey."

"How did you, um, recharge?"

"Okay," She shrugged, giving him a weird look, "Shouldn't you be resting?"

"Well," He shifted a stack of datapads across the counter, "Seeing as I am the current CMO, and the best medic we have, I was able to clear myself from bed rest."

"Oh, really?" Moonracer suppressed a smirk.

"Yes."

"...I think your diagnosis might have just a hint of bias there."

"Perhaps," Ratchet admitted, a tinge of a grin on his faceplates.

There was a stretch of awkward silence that seemed to last for hours, before they both attempted to speak at the same time.

"Moonracer, I-"

"Ratch…"

They laughed, embarrassed, and Moonracer gestured for Ratchet to go ahead.

"I….apologize if I made you uncomfortable yesterday, I-"

"It's totally okay, I wasn't-" She started, but he waved agitatedly, signalling that he wasn't finished, and she clamped her mouth shut.

"It was an inappropriate thing for me to do, and honestly, I have no idea _what_ I was thinking." He pretended to laugh an embarrassed laugh, and it was convincing, "I must have been delirious with pain or something. I hope that this won't affect out, ahem, work relationship at all, and that we can just go back to the way things were."

"Are you...are you serious?" Moonracer said a bit unhappily when he finished, "I thought…"

"You thought?" Ratchet questioned, his servos clasped behind his back, "What did you think?"

"I-" Moonracer shook her helm, at a loss for words. She had thought maybe this could mean there was something between her and Ratchet, even though she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted there to be. "I thought...I wanted to see where that would...lead, I guess."

"Really?" Ratchet had to struggle to keep his faceplates neutral, secretly pleased and a little surprised. She had basically just admitted her interest in him, and while his spark was getting uncharacteristically light at the prospect, he could _not_ allow this to happen. His processor kept screaming at him how wrong it was; how inappropriate and creepy and horribly wrong it all was. At the same time, his spark kept having mini-freakouts whenever she was near, and the kiss had felt so _right_...

He sighed deeply and shook his helm, "No. I cannot allow it, Moonracer. The idea itself is...inappropriate, to say the least."

"Hang on a minute." Moonracer pushed back, not quite willing to let this go just yet, "You were _looking_ for someone to date at that party. Why not...me?" She flushed, realizing what she had just said out loud, "I mean, unless you don't like me, of course, I um…"

"I fear I may have been…" Ratchet sighed wearily, turning away from her to face the shelves, servos still clasped behind his back, "Fine. I admit, I was looking for a distraction."

"A distraction?" Moonracer questioned, and he turned and gazed back at her for a moment, "From what?"

"...From you." He said simply, his dark blue optics studying her with a curious light.

Moonracer felt her breath catch, looking into those optics and realizing that he had just admitted she was getting to him. "So...you do like me?" She asked weakly and his gaze hardened.

"That is irrelevant." He snapped a datapad shut, and walked to his computer briskly.

"Irrelevant?!" She followed him, confused, "I'm sorry, but how in Pit is _that_ irrelevant?"

"It is irrelevant, because any sort of feelings we may or may not have for each other _will not_ be acted upon." He placed both of his servos flat on the countertop across from her and fixed her with a stern and angry stare, "No matter what, we are nothing more, and will never be anything more, than apprentice and teacher. Do you understand me?"

She looked at him for a moment, her optics full of sadness and disappointment that he could feel, just through her gaze. And then she said softly, bitterly, "Fine, Ratchet. You win."

She turned and walked quietly back to her desk, and Ratchet watched her go,realizing he hadn't _wanted_ to win, as his spark sank past his peds.

 _It's for the best_ , he told it half-heartedly, _It's for the best._

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Cyclesmith finally released Shockwave from her Medbay a few days after the 'Cons had captured Takomi. Shockwave had been informed that the Autobots had tried to infiltrate his ship a few hours after they had taken the scientist, and had nearly had a spark attack, being confined to a medical berth while his troops were fighting off the Autobots. He tried to convince Cyclesmith of the practicality of letting him leave, but she had stubbornly refused to see reason, and he had been forced to command his troops via commlink.

Finally, today, he was deemed fit for release. She sternly informed him to remember to take his pain medicine regularly, and to not strain himself, and then turned back to her computer, signalling that he could leave.

He turned to leave, but something tugged at his curiosity, holding his peds in place. Shockwave's curiosity often caused difficulties with others, but it was always necessary to gain information, to gain power. So he said, "Femme."

"I have a name, Shockwave." She said impatiently, and Shockwave swore that if he could roll his optics, he would.

"Cyclesmith...what is the purpose of your mask?"

Her wings tightened ever so slightly and she said briskly, "None of your business."

The one thing that bothered Shockwave more than anything was when someone _refused_ to give him information.

He took a few steps closer to her, attempting to be intimidating, and thundered, "Do you not fear me, femme?"

Cyclesmith did not move, but glared at him unwaveringly, "Not in the slightest". She turned back to her work, and Shockwave stared at her back, uncomprehending for a moment, before shaking his helm numbly and walking out.

 _How does she...How do I not instill fear in her?_ He thought, _Even Barricade, one of my largest soldiers, fears me. But this one, tiny, little femme! It makes no logical sense, yet...this is so fascinating a development. I must investigate further._

Thankfully, his thoughts were interrupted by Barricade comming him.

:Shockwave, we have finally convinced the human to rebuild the weapon:

:Excellent: Shockwave responded, :How soon until it is ready?:

:See that's the thing: Barricade sighed, :He's requested some materials we don't have:

:Not to worry. I will send someone to take care of it:

Barricade sent Shockwave the materials list as he walked past Grimlock, who was hurriedly trying to buff out a large scratch that his tail had carved into the wall.

"Grimlock." Shockwave said and the dinobot jumped, "What are you doing?"

"Oh...nothin', boss bot." Grimlock said guiltily, trying to cover the scratch with his tail.

Shockwave sighed, "Nevermind that. I need you to go retrieve some materials from me."

Grimlock brightened, "Oh, sure! Where is they? The storage room?"

"No. They are located on Earth."

Grimlock looked a little uneasy, "Earth? Oh. Um…"

"Is there a problem, Grimlock?" Shockwave said sharply.

"Uh, no sir!" The dinobot attempted to salute, but whacked himself in the face, "It's just that... last time you put me on an Earth mission...you got shot...in the chassis…'cuz I wasn't a good guard..."

"Luckily, I will be nowhere near you." Shockwave said firmly, "Now, get going."

"Uh, Shockwave?" Grimlock questioned as he was walking away and the scientist sighed and turned back.

"What is it, Grimlock?"

"How do I...get down there?" The dinobot pointed at his peds, "I'm not one of those flying dinobots."

"The ground bridge." Shockwave rubbed his faceplates, "You can operate it, I trust?"

"Oh, yeah. No problem." Grimlock smiled terrifyingly, "Not to worry, boss bot. I'm all over it."

Shockwave walked away, getting a strange sinking feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong, as Grimlock headed up to the ground bridge. The technology was all very confusing, but Grimlock typed in the coordinates Shockwave had sent him, pressed a few different buttons, and the machine powered up, so he must have done it right.

He stepped in, and hit the button to bridge himself to what was supposed to be a government warehouse. However, when he opened his optics and looked around, there were no buildings in sight, only trees and vines. He seemed to be in some type of park, or thick forest maybe, or….

"Scrap." He sighed, realizing where he was. It was a jungle. He had bridged himself to a jungle.


	12. Chapter 12

Things were not going as Ratchet had hoped at all. He had hoped that he and Moonracer could just go back to the way things had been, back to their normal joking and mocking routine.

But Moonracer did not seem to be in the mood for jokes. Every time he tried to start heckling her about being young, or joking around, she would remain quiet. She seemed almost sad, and she didn't really smile anymore. The silence between them, even when they were discussing medical things, was deafening.

The twins were in the Medbay again one afternoon, with the usual scrapes and bruises, as Ratchet was pondering the problem.

"Aw, screw you and your busted arm!" Mudflap complained, "You nearly took my fraggin' helm off!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Skids argued, "You were standing right in the way of the rocket! It was supposed to hit Drift."

"Both of you shut the frag up." Ratchet said absentmindedly, working on both his problem and Skid's arm. He couldn't seem to work out a way to cheer Moonracer up; clearly she wanted nothing to do with him. Perhaps, he could recruit someone else…

And then Ratchet completed halted what he was doing, realizing who he had literally at his servos. _The twin pranksters, of course!_ Ratchet thought gleefully, an idea beginning to form. _If anyone can cheer her up, it's them_. This would have to be approached with caution, however.

"Listen here, dumbafts." Ratchet continued welding Skid's arm, "I need you two idiot's help, unfortunately."

"You need _our_ help?" Mudflap said, glancing at his twin.

"What an honor." Skids said sarcastically, "What do you want from us, Ratchet?"

"I would like you to someone cheer Moonracer up." Ratchet swallowed, struggling to not let them see his embarrassment, "She's just been very mopey lately, and I can't teach her when she's like this."

"Really?" Skids gave his twin a sideways grin, "Sure, we could do that, Ratch."

"Yeah." Mudflap laughed snidely, "But what's in it for us?"

"How about…." Ratchet pretended to consider, and then grabbed Skid's injured arm, making him wince, "I don't undo all my hard work?"

"Try harder, Doc." Skids laughed, wrenching his arm away.

Ratchet glared at both of them and vented slowly, "What do you want?"

Mudflap considered, "What do we want...how bout you be our personal slave?"

"Absolutely not." Ratchet said automatically.

"Come on, Ratch." Skids teased, leaning closer to the medic, "You know you want to."

Ratchet had to resist the urge to punch Skids right in the nose, and then not repair it, "Pick something more reasonable."

"I got an idea." Mudflap grinned.

"What?" His twin asked.

"We'll cheer Moonracer up, and in return...we get to play one prank on you, and get off scot-free."

Ratchet considered, "Depends on what the prank is."

"You can't know."

"Then no." Ratchet said firmly, and both twins rolled their optics.

"Then I'm afraid we can't offer our services, Ratch." Skids pretended to sigh regretfully, "So, if you're finished with my arm, I think we'll be on our way."

"Wait." Ratchet sighed, "Fine, I'll do it. Just means I'll have to really kick your afts next time."

The twins high-fived and rolled out the door, calling back sinisterly, "See ya later, Ratchet!"

Ratchet had to suppress the sudden urge to shudder in horror.

OOO

Ratchet sent Moonracer out once it got to be a little too late in the night. Almost the entire day had been spent in that powerful, stifling silence, and once he had said that she could leave, she did, without a goodbye or even a word.

Ratchet sighed unhappily to himself when she left, hoping that whatever the twins had planned would work, and work soon. He needed the Moonracer he knew back.

A few hours after she left, he managed to finish everything up that needed to be done, and locked up the Medbay. He took a few steps down the hall to his quarters, resolving to finally get a few hours of recharge before the day began again.

He settled comfortably onto his berth, allowing the feeling of easy tiredness and safety to drift him off to recharge. These were his quarters after all; he would be safe from the twins here.

One thing he had overlooked, however, was to lock his door.

OOO

Despite only getting minimal hours of sleep, and having to get up early, Ratchet awoke feeling quite refreshed. He stretched, feeling like he had woken up on the right side of the bed for once, and maybe today would be a somewhat pleasant day. _Maybe I'll do better at cheering Moonracer up today,_ he thought. _After all, you can't really cheer someone up if you're too busy being grumpy yourself._

So, all in all, it seemed like everything was going to go well today. That is, until Ratchet finally caught sight of his servos.

He just looked at them for a moment, absolutely bewildered, before letting out a little yelp of horror and rushing to his bathroom mirror. He stared at his faceplates, turning his helm this way and that, the normal gloom and rage settling back in under his armour.

His servos, his faceplates, his chassis...every inch of him had been thoroughly painted a hot pink.

 _They didn't miss a single damn spot_ , Ratchet thought gloomily, examining his very pink nose. _All of the lines are completely perfect...Of course they are. They would want this to look professional, as if I had_ _chosen_ _this. As if this was some sort of 'fashion' decision._

He let out an exasperated groan, letting his helm rest wearily on the edge of the sink, _Why the frag didn't I wake up?  
_

He was willing to be that it wasn't the washable kind of paint either. Of course, that didn't mean that he wasn't going to try his damndest.

However, after spending nearly an hour in the wash racks trying desperately to scrub the pink away, he had no results other than itchy and irritated metal.

Finally, he forced himself to report to the Medbay, albeit an hour late. Fortunately, it was still too early for almost anyone else to be up, so hardly anyone spotted him on his way. In fact, the only bot who saw him was Jolt, who let out a low whistle, looking Ratchet up and down, and laughed, saying, "Damn, Ratchet. I never knew you were such a diva!"

Ratchet had to suppress the urge to murder.

He finally made it to the Medbay, unlocking the door and breathing a sigh of relief to find it empty. Moonracer wasn't there yet.

He left the lights off, desperately hoping that maybe if they just stayed in the dark the entire day, she wouldn't discover his altered state. That bubble of hope was burst, of course, when she came in a while later and immediately flicked the lights on as Ratchet dove behind his desk.

"Lights off!" he barked, and Moonracer tilted her helm, confused.

"Ratchet...what is going on? Why are you behind a desk? And why do we have to leave the lights off?"

"Just do as I ask, Moonracer," came the voice wearily.

Moonracer, of course, did no such thing, and instead snuck quietly over to the desk and peeked over the edge.

There was Ratchet, his back against the side of the desk. His arms were crossed, and he looked like a pouty little pink sparkling.

Moonracer couldn't help but laugh a little, and she asked through her laughter, "Ratchet? What happened to you?"

"Nothing," Ratchet said sourly and Moonracer laughed harder, sliding down the side of the desk to sit next to him.

"Aw, did someone get painted pink by the twins?" She cooed teasingly, and Ratchet turned to look at her finally, his optics furious and yet somehow a little lighter.

"Watch it, apprentice," he growled playfully. "Or I might just rub some off on you!"

He grabbed her arm suddenly and she let out a little shriek of laughter, struggling to get away as Ratchet tried to rub his arm on hers, "No! I don't want to look like a pink puffball!"

"Is that what I look like?" Ratchet raised an optic ridge. "How rude, Moonracer! And here I was thinking you were a polite femme."

Moonracer rolled her optics at this and Ratchet smiled a little, "Well, I suppose if I look like a pink puffball...then you must become one as well!" He yanked her closer to him, and she let out a surprised laugh again, and he rubbed a servo across her faceplate gently.

They both seemed to realize the somewhat intimate position they were in at the same time, and both took a step back hastily, offering awkward apologies.

"So...does the paint wash off?" Moonracer chuckled awkwardly and Ratchet groaned.

"No, it doesn't. I tried for like an entire hour."

"So you'd have to repaint then?" her lips quirked up a little. "Or just...stay pink."

"Haha," he said sarcastically and then sighed. "Yeah I do need to repaint. But I don't have any red and white paint and I don't know how long it would take to get some from Cybertron."

"I wonder if maybe the paint humans use on their cars would work?"

"Puh-lease," Ratchet rolled his optics. "As if I would let that scrappy watered watered down mud anywhere near my frame."

"Oh, yes of course, your Highness," Moonracer mock bowed. "I forgot that everything is too good for you. Perhaps your Pinkness would prefer to remain in your current state?"

Ratchet gave Moonracer a slightly panicked look and she laughed, "Don't worry, ya priss. I'll get you some paint."

She left the Medbay to go track down Miko and get her to help buy the paint, and Ratchet smiled after her. It seemed like he finally had his Moonracer back.


	13. Chapter 13

While Moonracer was out getting Ratchet's paint, the twins stopped by the Medbay to admire their handiwork in person.

"Hey Ratchet!" Skids said with fake enthusiasm. "You look super cheerful today!"

"Yeah is there something different aboutcha?" Mudflap was struggling not to laugh. "Yer positively glowing!"

Both of them collapsed into laughter, leaning against each other to keep from falling over.

Ratchet's servos curled around his wrench, and he let out a frustrated snarl, realizing he couldn't use it. "Haha," he growled. "Fraggin' hilarious."

"Ah Ratchet, we should make deals with you more often," Skids wiped a few tears of laughter away. "It's so nice to get to see our work up close and personal."

"This will never, ever happen again," Ratchet snarled. "And just so we're clear, the next time you morons even _think_ about pranking me, I'll frag you up twice as good for this."

"Aw, come on, Ratchet," Mudflap teased. "Where's your sense of fun?"

"Frag off," Ratchet vented through his nose. "When do you start working on cheering Moonracer up?"

Skids shrugged, "Already done."

"What in Pit do you mean, already done?"

"We saw Moonracer just a few minutes ago; she seemed pretty cheered up just because of your 'fashion upgrade'," Skids snickered. "Two birds, one stone, Ratch."

Ratchet could feel the energon boiling up behind his faceplates, "You're joking."

"Hey, we held up our end," Skids crossed his arms. "Moonracer is happy. That's what you wanted isn't it? 'Cuz you loooove her." Mudflap chuckled and highfived his twin at this, and an evil smile spread across Ratchet's faceplates. He gripped his wrench and began advancing toward the twins, forcing them to back up.

"Whoa, hey, Ratch," Skids said nervously, servos raised. "We had a deal."

"Yeah," Ratchet smiled lethally, "but you did not uphold your end of the deal. Therefore, the deal is off.""

He leapt at them suddenly and they shrieked, turning and sprinting out of the Medbay. Ratchet gave a little bit of a chase, managing to whip his wrench and smack Skids in the back of the helm. The twins sped away and Ratchet stopped to pick up his wrench, satisfied at having hit one of them and not willing to venture too far outside the Medbay. He didn't need more bots to see his altered state.

Moonracer returned with two cans of paint and some brushes a little while later, and Ratchet peered at them disdainfully.

"Are you sure this scrap won't give me some sort of organic disease?"

Moonracer sighed, "Come on, Ratch. It'll be fine. I'll even help."

"Help?" Ratchet questioned, slightly scandalized. "Help how?"

"Your faceplates would be difficult for you to do yourself, wouldn't they?"

"Ah," Ratchet relaxed slightly. "Yes, I suppose they would be. Although," he added, amused, "I don't know if I trust you to paint my faceplates without fragging them up."

"Hey!" Moonracer flushed. "I can do it just fine."

"I don't know," Ratchet pretended to consider, grinning. "You are a bit of a klutz, Moonracer. Remember the 'incident' with Sunstreaker?"

Moonracer scowled at him and he raised his servos defensively, "However, I digress."

She mixed the paint and gestured for him to lie down on a medical berth, and he did so slowly.

She started with the rust red and a thin brush, painting the sides of his faceplates slowly. Ratchet tried not to squirm, but he felt like he was suffocating having her this close to him. His thoughts kept circling uselessly; _Only my apprentice, only my apprentice, only my..._

Finally he was forced to say something, to interrupt the stillness, "So, how are you enjoying your apprenticeship?" _Only my apprentice, only my apprentice…_

She shrugged, holding the brush above her servo so she wouldn't drip paint onto the white part of his faceplates, "It's been pretty good so far. Only problem is this grumpy old medic who keeps bossing me around."

Ratchet chuckled, "Huh. See, I'm having a similar problem with my apprentice. She's this annoying, young bot who thinks she knows everything."

"Oh, shut up," Moonracer laughed, "or I'll punch ya right in your pretty face."

"You? Punch me?" Ratchet smirked. "Don't make me laugh, Moonracer, or you'll smudge my paint."

Moonracer smiled quietly, dipping her brush back in the can, "I am glad to be your apprentice, Ratch, but I wish-"

"Hey guys!" Windblade walked in and Ratchet breathed a sigh of relief. She did a double take, "Whoa. What happened to you?"

"Damn twins," Ratchet sighed. "Moonracer's helping me fix it."

"I was about to say," Windblade laughed. "That seems like a pretty bold color choice, even for you."

Moonracer finished Ratchet's faceplates a few minutes later. He stood up and moved to his desk, fanning his faceplates to make them dry, as Moonracer and Windblade started up a conversation. She had stopped by to see if Moonracer would be interested in going out that night and checking out the nearby towns.

Moonracer apologized and said she would probably be working late tonight.

"C'mon, Moon," Windblade complained. "You work late every night. Doesn't that old coot ever give you a night off?"

Moonracer hesitated and then shook her helm, "Sorry Windblade. I gotta do some important stuff tonight. Maybe some other night?" She really wanted to get a chance to talk to Ratchet more about being more than apprentice and teacher.

"Ah, I see. 'Important' stuff," Windblade raised her optic ridges meaningfully.

"What are you...what?"

Windblade lowered her voice, "With a certain ruggedly handsome medic?"

Moonracer's faceplates flamed and she hissed back, "No! We're not even...what in Pit, Windblade?"

"All I'm saying is, that seemed like a fairly intimate moment I interrupted just then."

"I was just helping him with his paint!"

"Sure you were."

Moonracer sighed, rubbing her forehelm, "We're just apprentice and teacher, Windblade."

Windblade shrugged and the femmes continued chatting for a little bit. Windblade eventually decided to head out.

Moonracer called after her, "See ya later 'Blade!", shuffled a few of her datapads around, and turned around just in time to see Ratchet sink a syringe into his inner arm, a servo pressed to his spark.

"Ratchet, what in Pit-?" Moonracer said, alarmed. "What was that for?"

"Don't worry about it," he winced as he pulled it out. "It's just for a medical condition I have."

"What medical condition?" She walked over to him, concerned. "Is it serious?"

"It's nothing."

"Can't you just tell me?" Moonracer said worriedly, considering doing a medical scan. "Why does everything have to be so secretive with you? I'm just worried about you is all."

"It's none of your concern, apprentice," he said sternly, his optics narrowed, and with that word, her spark sunk to her peds.

"Primus, Ratchet, are we not even allowed to be friends?" She burst out sadly, and turned on her heel, pushing out of the Medbay doors.

"Moonracer!" he called after, but she kept going, speeding into a jog, and then a sprint.

She sprinted up to the groundbridge and plugged in a set of random coordinates, before rushing through. She was unsure of where she would end up, but she didn't care. She just wanted to be as far away from him as possible, from the alluringly coarse mech who seemed to despise her.


	14. Chapter 14

Moonracer stepped out of the other side of the groundbridge, chest still heavy. She glanced around, her sparkbeat slowing, realizing she was in some sort of jungle.

Her shoulders relaxed and she nodded to herself. This would be a good place to let herself think for a moment: quiet and pleasant. And no humans appeared to be around, so she could remain in her robot mode.

She had scarcely been settled on the cool mossy ground for a few hours when there was a large rustle to her right, followed by the frantic whirring of machinery.

Moonracer frowned and rose again to her peds, following the noise and wondering what could be making a mechanical sound in the middle of a jungle. As far as she knew, there weren't any mechanical plants on Earth, although she supposed the humans could have dreamt up such a thing to replace all of the actual plants they had destroyed.

She pushed aside a large leaf and jumped. Caught in the twisted vines of a large tree was a dinobot. He spotted her as soon as she saw him and began to panic, struggling against the vines, "Ahhh! Please don't kill, Ms. Autobot lady! Please?"

"Calm down," she relaxed a little herself, seeing as he was incapacitated and clearly terrified of her. "I'm unarmed. And I'm a medic."

"A medic?" the dinobot screamed, petrified. "Those are the worst ones!"

"Whoa, hey, it's okay," Moonracer raised her arms in a reassuring gesture. "I'm not gonna hurt you. You're Grimkey right?"

"Grimlock," he corrected, appearing a little calmer.

"Grimlock," she apologized. "I'm Moonracer. I'm gonna try to get you out of this okay? Just don't move?"

Grimlock immediately began moving, shrinking away from her, "You're gonna get me out of here? Why? You're an Autobot."

"I'm also a medic," she sighed and he shuddered at the word. She noticed and crossed her arms, "Grimlock, do you even know what a medic is?"

"Yeah, those evil torture bots," he gave her an up and down look as if to say, 'I know what you're about'. "They torture ya to try to make you tell 'em stuff."

"Grimlock," she rubbed her forehelm. "That's not what a medic is."

"Aha!" he poked his tail triumphantly. "That's just what a medic would say! But lucky for me, I got too much brains to fall for your medic-tricks. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna return to trying to get away from you."

He resumed struggling uselessly against the vines, and Moonracer wondered wearily just how much 'brains' this dinobot had.

She just shook her helm and said, "Alright, Grimlock, I'm gonna try to cut you free. Don't move, or I might accidentally cut you instead."

Grimlock immediately stiffened and let out a strange little whimper as Moonracer began carefully cutting the vines off of him. Everything went smoothly for the most part; there was a moment where Moonracer's tiny knife was a little too close to Grimlock's metal, and he jumped, causing the knife to nick his arm.

It was barely a cut, but Moonracer jumped in before Grimlock could overreact. "I'm so sorry!" she cried, rummaging in her subspaces for some bandages. "Here, let me…"

Grimlock laid his snout on the ground quietly as she bandaged up his arm. When she had finished and cheerfully proclaimed it, "good as new!", he looked up at her thoughtfully.

"You're not evil, are you?"

She chucked, returning to cutting the vines, "No, Grimlock. I've been trying to tell you, I only want to help."

"But why?" he asked, curious. "You're an Autobot. You're supposed to hate me. Why would you help me?"

Moonracer shrugged, "I'm a medic. Autobots, Decepticons: we're all still Cybertronians who need help."

"Besides," she added, grinning, "I don't think you're evil either."

He smiled, pleased, and it was a little terrifying, but Moonracer knew he hadn't meant it to be.

"Primus, Grimlock," Moonracer said, shaking the vines exasperatedly. "How did you manage to get so tangled?"

"Well, I was bridged here on accident," Grimlock tucked his tail sheepishly and added, "but it wasn't my fault. So I tried to comm back to base for a ground bridge out of here, but the signal wasn't working. So, I started walking around, hoping I could find a better signal. I kept walking through these vines, but I just pushed through 'em, 'cuz I'm a big bot and I figured I could. But then they got too thick and I couldn't push anymore. So I tried to go back, but I guess I must've dragged the vines that I _did_ push through with, so then I was trapped on both sides."

"So," he concluded, "it was really the vines fault for being too thick for a dinobot to walk through."

"Of course it was," Moonracer rolled her optics, "It's not like you could have just _not_ walked through them."

"Right?" Grimlock nodded, pleased. "You get it."

He was silent for a moment as she continued struggling to cut the vines, and then asked, "So how come you're here?"

"I, um," Moonracer winced, "I kinda had a fight with someone in my base. I bridged here to get away from them."

"Oh," Grimlock considered and then his faceplates brightened. "Didja get some good punches in at least?"

"No, no," Moonracer shook her helm, "it wasn't that kind of fight. We just said some stuff."

"Were you guys friends?"

Moonracer could feel a pressure building in her throat, but she tried to ignore it, "No...we weren't."

She cut the last of the vines off of him, and he stood up properly and wagged his tail happily. Moonracer hadn't realized how truly huge this dinobot was until he stood up; it was pretty intimidating.

"You know," he said, examining his now-free tail, "I'm glad you had that fight with your non-friend."

"What?" Moonracer craned her helm up to look at him. "Why?"

"Because," he grinned his terrifying-friendly grin, "if you hadn't, I'd still be stuck in a bunch of stupid vines."

Moonracer laughed, "Well, in that case, I'm glad too." She patted the dinobot's side and said, "Thanks for cheering me up, Grimlock."

"You were sad?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah about the fight?"

"But...why would you be sad, if you weren't even friends with them?"

Moonracer scrubbed her faceplates, "Because...I wanted to be at least friends with him, but he doesn't want to be friends with me."

"Well that's rude of him," Grimlock said indignantly. "I'd be your friend."

"You would?"

"Of course," he draped his tail comfortingly around her shoulders. "You're nice, and you seem smart, and you're pretty."

Moonracer naturally blushed at this, but the dinobot didn't seem at all flustered; he had stated it as if it was a fact. "Don't worry about it so much Moonracer," Grimlock continued, "It'll all work out somehow."

"Thanks...Grimlock."

"No problem!" Grimlock replied cheerfully. He tried to comm the Decepticon base again and it connected, "Hey I got 'em!"

:This is Grimlock, I need a ground bridge:

"Oh, good," Moonracer smiled as a groundbridge opened next to them. "Well, good luck Grimlock."

"Good luck with what?" the dinobot asked, confused.

"With...I don't know, nevermind," Moonracer sighed. "Just take care, okay?"

"Okay," Grimlock agreed. "See you around, Moonracer." And with that he turned and thundered through the ground bridge.

Once she was alone, Moonracer sighed and commed for her own ground bridge, reflecting on her odd encounter. As the surging ground bridge appeared, she stepped through it, anticipating having to deal with an angry Ratchet.

When she came through the other side, she attempted to just nod quickly at Mirage, who was operating the ground bridge, and duck out. But he frowned at her-he had just returned from his break- and said, "Where in Pit did you just come from?"

"Ah...just the...jungle."

Mirage raised an optic ridge, "Which jungle?"

"Um," Moonracer said weakly, "I'm not exactly sure."

"Did you have permission to use the ground bridge?"

"...No."

Mirage folded his arms and said sternly, "Unscheduled uses of the ground bridge are expressly forbidden, Moonracer. It isn't a toy."

"I understand," Moonracer bobbed her helm awkwardly. "Apologies, Mirage."

"Don't let it happen again, or next time I'll leave you in the jungle." Mirage's pedsteps echoed away into the control room, and Moonracer breathed a sigh of relief, exiting the room.

It was towards the end of the day now, and Moonracer didn't really want to deal with Ratchet today, so she decided to head back to her quarters.

On her way she encountered the twins spray painting the wall outside the training room in pink. So far it read "Have YOU seen Ratchet's new"

Moonracer chuckled and nudged them, "Nice work."

"Moonracer!" Skids said happily and Mudflap chimed in, "Hey, there you are!"

"Nice to see you guys too," she laughed.

"No, no femme," Skids shook his helm. "We were just surprised to see ya. The doc bot turned up damn near the whole base lookin' for ya."

"He did?" Moonracer said nervously.

"Yeah," Mudflap stuck out his glossa, concentrating on painting a 'P'. "He was pretty worried."

"Worried?" Moonracer said, a little surprised. She certainly hadn't been expecting worry from _Ratchet_ of all people, "Why would he be worried?"

"I dunno," Skids shrugged. "He's been acting pretty weird aboutcha lately."

"What do you mean? How has he been acting weird?"

The twins glanced at each other and Skids muttered, "He didn't _say_ we couldn't tell her. That wasn't part of the deal."

"What deal?"

A wide grin split Skids' face, "Ratchet wasn't painted pink for no reason, Moonracer."

"Well then why was he?"

"It was part of a deal we made with him. We would do something to cheer you up, because you seemed kinda down, and we could play one prank on Ratchet without him beatin' us up."

"What?" Moonracer laughed. "You guys must be joking. Why on Cybertron would Ratchet agree to that?"

"Moonracer, it was _his_ idea. He came to us."

"But...why would he…"

"I dunno," Skids shrugged and shared an evil grin with his twin, "But if I had to hazard a guess, I would say-"

"Twins!" Ultra Magnus bellowed as he rounded the corner and caught sight of the wall.

They jumped back at the word and sped off, calling back, "See ya later Moonracer!"

She flattened herself against the opposite wall so Ultra Magnus could give chase. Once he had squeezed past she began walking again, altering her course from her quarters to the Medbay.

When she entered the Medbay, Ratchet was sitting at his computer, staring intently at the screen. His paint was still pink, and it was fairly odd to see the bustling medic sitting still for once.

He glanced up when she entered and smiled, relaxing just a bit, "Ah, there you are. I was looking for you."

"Why?" Moonracer asked coyly.

"I was just, um-" Ratchet blustered. "You needed to do your job; you can't just leave."

"Sure," Moonracer rolled her optics and decided not to mention what the twins had said. It would only embarrass him, and he'd deny it anyways. Plus, she'd already had one fight with Ratchet today; she wasn't sure if she could handle two.

"Well," Ratchet coughed awkwardly, "now that you're back, you can get to work on that stack of reports, and I can get back to this abomination that shouldn't even be called a paint job."

"What were you doing while I was gone?" Moonracer said amusedly, pretending to try to look at his computer screen. He changed it quickly and before he could respond, she said, "Let me guess: 'None of your damn business, apprentice'."

She grabbed some datapads off the shelf and sat down at her computer, and Ratchet looked at her quietly for a moment. He moved to the countertop, popping open the paint cans and starting on his arm, his processor stuck in a Moonracer loop again.

 _Could we be friends?_ he wondered, _No, no, that would be inappropriate...but would it? First Aid and I are friends now I suppose..._

"You're thinking pretty hard," Moonracer called, glancing at his arm.

"How can you tell?"

"You're inverting your colors."

Ratchet glanced down at his arm and swore. The parts that were supposed to be red, he had begun to paint white and vice versa. "Dammit," he muttered, crossing the room quickly to the sink before the paint could dry.

He scrubbed off as much of the red and white as he could, returning his arm to a now splotchy pink. He leaned back against the sink with a sigh, looking at Moonracer thoughtfully.

 _Would it be too hard?_ he wondered, _to be friends? She's so stubborn and naive and….beautiful. I don't know if I'll be able to ignore that._

 _On the other hand,_ he argued with himself, _I've been ignoring that anyway, with her as just my apprentice. Would it really be that much harder to ignore if we were friends?_

"Hey, Moonracer," Ratchet called and Moonracer glanced up from her stack of reports.

"Yes, Oh Wise One?" she said sarcastically, and a bit sourly, and Ratchet winced.

"I was, ah, thinking about what you said earlier."

"Really?" She stood, stretching, and joined him at the sink. "Well, I gotta hear this, because every word that falls out of your mouth is golden wisdom."

"Easy," he scolded playfully, "I'm trying to be nice, for once."

She arched an optic ridge, "Really?"

"It's not so unbelievable, Moonracer," he rolled his optics and sighed. "I was thinking about what you said earlier, about us being friends."

She remained silent, apparently waiting for him to continue, and he said, "I think...I think I would like that." And then after a pause he added hastily, flushing a little, "That is, of course, if you still wanted to."

"I don't know, Ratchet."

"Ah," Ratchet nodded, embarrassed. "Well, in that case, forget I said anything. I just thought that—that _you_ wanted to, is all."

Moonracer hmmed and said, "Hey, Ratchet."

"Yeah?"

An impish grin split Moonracer's faceplates as she said quietly, mischievously, "Gotcha."

He looked at her for a moment, absolutely stunned, and then stuttered, "You-you little rat! I can't believe you—I can't believe I fell for that!"

Moonracer laughed, "Had to get you back somehow."

Ratchet scrubbed his faceplates, smiling a little, "So?"

Moonracer pretended to consider, "I _suppose_ I can be your friend, Ratch."

"You suppose?" he grinned. "Primus, don't I feel like a winner here. Perhaps you'd be more adamant if you were pink?" He took a menacing step toward her and she ran to the other side of the counter, laughing.

"Alright, alright!" She put her servos up nervously. "I'll be your friend, just don't make me pink. And for Primus' sake, stop being pink yourself."

Ratchet agreed with her and went back to fixing his paint job, a faint smile on his faceplates.


End file.
